Indian Railways to carry Amazon consignments for 3 months

In a bid to increase revenue through the non-fare sources, the railways has decided to allow carriage to goods of e-commerce giant Amazon on a pilot basis for three months during the non-peak hours, officials said on Monday.

According to Railway Ministry officials, with the pilot project of allowing to carry the e-commerce consignments, the parcel business of Indian Railways will get a major boost. In a statement, the railways said: "Indian Railways started a pilot project, allowing e-commerce consignments on its EMU services in non-peak hours."

It said as part of innovative pilot project, carrying of e-commerce consignment of Amazon in EMU services commenced from Sealdah to Dankuni in EMU local (suburban services) managed by Eastern Railways.

The national transporter said that the pilot project will be done for a period of three months where total 7 metric tonnes of consignment per day has been allowed to be carried.

According to railways, the consignment has been allowed to be carried in vendor compartments alongwith other vendors in non-peak hours (between 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.), thus causing no inconvenience to the existing system.

The ministry said that the national transporter will be benefitted through generation of revenue without putting any additional stress or burden on existing system whereas Amazon will be benefitted through reduced transit time. It said the route of Sealdah to Dankuni was preferred by Amazon for quick movement of their consignment to the existing facility at Dankuni.

"Upon success of the pilot project, other routes may also be taken up by Amazon and other e-commerce companies may also be interested," the ministry added.