October 20, 2020: Mumbai Central – New Delhi Special Rajdhani Express has become the first high speed train on the Western Railway zone of Indian Railways to run with a Parcel Van loaded with the consignment of an e-commerce company.
Speedy transportation of parcels by Indian Railways’ Rajdhani Express! Recently, the national transporter made another noteworthy achievement by running a Special Rajdhani Express train with a loaded Parcel Van. Train number 02951 Mumbai Central – New Delhi Special Rajdhani Express has become the first high speed train on the Western Railway zone of Indian Railways to run with a Parcel Van loaded with the consignment of an e-commerce company. Western Railways confirmed to Financial Express Online that this transportation of parcels by the Rajdhani Express special train started last week. A specially designed high speed parcel coach was added to the Rajdhani train under this arrangement.
According to Western Railways, under a new scheme, Piyush Goyal chaired Railway Ministry allowed 120-day advance booking of parcel space in various trains recently. Therefore, with the aim of increasing freight traffic, the Western Railway zone decided to add one parcel coach to Mumbai Central – New Delhi Special Rajdhani Express. To book indent (parcels) in the Rajdhani Express, the Mumbai Central Division of Indian Railways has signed a deal with the logistics partner of Amazon India. The booking of parcels in Rajdhani Express is for 113 days, i.e., from 13 October 2020 to 2 February 2021. According to the zonal railway, a revenue of Rs 2 crore will be generated with the estimated goods transportation of 2,712 tonnes, over a duration of 113 days.
Earlier this year, the national transporter launched the first ever High Capacity Parcel Van on LHB (Linke Hofmann Busch) at Delhi’s Safdarjung railway station. It was designed and manufactured by Rail Coach Factory (RCF), Kapurthala. The Parcel Van has a carrying capacity of 24 tonnes and a total volume of 187 m3 in total. It boasts foldable two-tier luggage racks, three collapsible partitions as well as four number of sliding doors. The coach’s interior paneling is of stainless steel. Also, it has been equipped with axle-mounted disc brakes, 140 KN air suspension, and anti-climbing CBC coupler with transition screw coupling.
Source: Financial Express
