Central Railway has dispatched 61,978 tons of parcel goods since the lockdown began in March 2020, says a statement from the zone.
Of this, 38,618 tons in parcel trains; 19,290 tons in parcel vans of special trains; milk tanker 1,804 tons and 2,266 tons in Kisan Rail.
As of 10th September 2020, the goods dispatched include various commodities, including perishables, pharma products, food and other hard parcels.
All passenger traffic was suspended with the start of the first lockdown in March 2020. In order to ensure essential commodities continued to reach consumers, Indian Railways started operation of several parcel trains across the country. These were meant to enable private businesses to ship their goods to consumer markets.
CR used the passenger special trains started from 1st June 2020 to dispatch 19,290 tons of parcels till 10th September 2020.
India’s first-ever Kisan Rail was started from Central railway from 7th August 2020. The original service was planned between Devlali and Danapur in Bihar as a weekly train.
The plan for the train was to help farmers send their produce quickly and cheaply to distant markets. The train was extended further upto Muzaffarpur. A link rake from Sangola and Pune is attached at Manmad. The Kisan Rail service is now running tri-weekly from 8th September 2020.
Kisan Rail completed 10 trips carrying more than 2,200 tons of perishable commodities like pomegranates, capsicum, green chillies, lemon and other produce.
