Southern Railway introduced Parcel Cargo Express Train (PCET) on 1st April, 2020 to enable seamless transportation of essential commodities.
Presently, daily Parcel Cargo Special trains are operated between Chennai Egmore – Thiruvananthapuram, Dr MGR Chennai Central – Shoranur, Thiruvananthapuram – Kozhikkode and Dr MGR Chennai Central – New Delhi. Owing to patronage, the services of Parcel Cargo Express trains run by Southern Railway have been extended upto 31st May, 2020.
Using these services Southern Railway has transported from 24th March, 2020 till 18th May, 2020 various commodities totaling a weight of 6155 tonnes. The majority of them being farm products weighing 2294.04 tonnes and food items weighing 1271 tonnes.
Vegetables and fruits weighing 84.55 tonnes and 103.46 tonnes respectively, were transported during the period. Along with these 52.38 tonnes of postal materials were despatched through RMS (Rail Mail service).
Apart from these, on-demand parcel train services were operated to Punjab (2 trips to Bathinda) and Haryana (2 trips to Hisar) and transported 1867 tonnes of cotton seeds aiding agricultural activities in the country. The transportation of 1.15 lakh litres of milk (in tetra packs of each 1 litre) from Salem to Dimapur in Assam deserves special mention.
These parcel cargo express train have gained patronage amongst traders wanting to transport essential commodities. SETU 24*7 helpline numbers of various divisions for assistance to Traders/farmers/Logistics and Cargo Operators desirous of booking various commodities is given below :
| Chennai | 9444282223 or 9003061980 |
| Palakkad | 9746763953 |
| Trivandrum | 9746769951 |
| Madurai | 9003862953 |
| Salem | 9003956951 |
| Tiruchchirappalli | 9003864953 |
| Railway Helpline | 138 |
