Do you want to get a sack of rice from Bihar or a saree from Gujarat? Indian Railways will fulfill your wish soon. In an effort to tap the “non-conventional” freight traffic, the state-owned transporter is conducting test runs of a door-to-door delivery service for individual and bulk customers.
In a similar pattern to the courier companies and e-commerce players, the Indian Railways is planning to offer door-to-door delivery service for individual and bulk customers, reported Times of India. Giving details, the national transporter said the basic plan is to have an app and provide users receipts with a QR code that will help them in tracking their consignments.
Apart from this, the app or the website will show the estimated charge and the time needed to make one delivery.
The report suggested that the railways will act as a transporter, and it is looking to persuade India Post and other players to improve the delivery. In this regard, some of the railway zones have been asked to develop a module.
The report further suggested that the railways have also roped in the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC), which will roll out the first service by June-July in the Delhi-NCR and Gujarat’s Sanand.
Apart from this, an in-house trial of the service has also been launched by DFCC. The report stated that after Delhi-NCR and Gujarat, another pilot project will be planned in Mumbai.
The DFCC told TOI that the officials are targeting the white goods and small items along with the aggregators. “We are targeting white goods, small items as well as aggregators who can avail of the service,” TOI quoted a DFCC official as saying.
To avail these new services from the Railways, the customers will be given the option to either drop the package at dedicated points or have it picked up from their given address like homes or offices. The DFCC officials further added that the service will be based on a transit assurance scheme.
Recently, Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had told TOI that the ministry is confident of crossing the freight loading cargo in 2022-23, which has been estimated at 1,475 million tonnes.
Source : India.com
