Indian Railways gears up to handle non-conventional freight traffic

The Indian Railways is ramping up their game with plans for door-to-door delivery of goods to individual as well as bulk buyers. The news comes soon after the Union Budget announced further integration of Railways into the logistics ecosystem of the country. Indian Railways is now conducting test runs for the non-conventional freight traffic, tracing the footsteps of e-commerce and 3PL companies, in its own unique manner.
The Indian Railways’ website will provide basic estimate of time and cost of the delivery. Plus, there will be an app to generate receipts with QR codes which can be used by the customers to track their shipments. The customers can either drop their packages at designated drop-off locations or get them picked from a location of their preference (home, office).
Railways will transport the goods, while India Post and other delivery partners will be making the doorstep delivery of the shipments. Some railway zones have been asked to develop blueprints for this plan. Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation is also on board with the Indian Railways and the plan is to launch the first service by mid 2022 in Delhi NCR and Sanand in Gujrat. Another project is in the pipeline for Mumbai.
“We are targeting white goods, small items as well as aggregators who can avail of the service.” said a DFCC official.