Railway minister launches 3 initiatives in freight services to boost logistics

New Delhi: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday launched three new initiatives in freight services to ensure time-bound and complete logistics support by offering first and last mile connectivity to various businesses and industries.

These initiatives, to be offered in collaboration with the Container Corporation of India Ltd (CONCOR), include an integrated logistics hub in Uttar Pradesh, a time-bound container train between Delhi and Kolkata, and a door-to-door parcel service between Mumbai and Kolkata.

Addressing the media, Vaishnaw said that door-to-door parcel service will be 7.5 per cent cost savings and 30 per cent faster compared to all-road movement.

“Door-to-door service is very important for the country as it will bring real efficiency and reduction in the logistics cost. Various types of experiments were done and based on those experiments and learning, the three initiatives have been taken,” the railway minister said.

He said that with the first assured transit container train between Delhi and Kolkata, more such trains will be added until this route gets saturated.

“Further, based on our experience on this route, similar facilities will be started to connect other new destinations in future,” he added.

Introducing the initiatives, Sastish Kumar, Chairman and CEO of Railway Board, said that the Railway Goods Shed, as an integrated logistics hub in Sonik -- 50 km from Lucknow and 20 km from Kanpur -- will cater to the logistic needs of its nearby areas by offering door-to-door logistic solutions to customers and cargoes such as fertilizers, foodgrains, cement and tractors.

A time-bound container train between Delhi and Kolkata aims to attract time-sensitive cargo from road to railways assuring delivery in 120 hours, Kumar added.

“This bi-weekly train will run on Wednesday and Saturday with loading and unloading facilities at two intermediate terminals-- Agra and Kanpur,” Kumar said.

“It offers multiple booking options such as door-to-door, door-to-terminal, terminal-to-door and terminal-to-terminal depending on the requirement of consumers who can avail the services through the CONCOR e-Logistics Mobile App,” he said.

In the third initiative, door-to-door parcel service between Bhiwandi (Mumbai) and Sankrail (Kolkata), the CONCOR’s business associates will collect commodities such as bags, medicines, lubricants, refrigerators or any other product from the doorstep of the industries which are situated as far as 205 kms from the train loading point and deliver them to their respective destinations around Kolkata with 48 to 60 hours run time.