In a major boost to the PM Gati Shakti program, Western Railway in collaboration with India Post has commenced the new initiative of Rail Post Gati Shakti Express Service for providing logistics service to Parcel customers. This initiative has been implemented pursuant to the recent Budget announcement for providing end to end Logistic solution by leveraging the strengths of the First Mile and Last mile connectivity advantage of Postal department and the Middle Mile strength of Railways.
Anil Kumar Lahoti, General Manager of Western and Central Railway conduced inspection of the facilities at the newly developed Surat Parcel Office and reviewed the loading operations.
According to the press release by Sumit Thakur, Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, as per the modalities of the Rail Post Gati Shakti Express Service, Railways will be transporting goods from one rail head to other rail head and Postal Department will play the role of aggregator for collection and distribution of consignments from Customer factory/ Depot at both originating and destination location.
This collaborative model has been implemented by Western Railway’s Mumbai Division in consultation with Department of Post, Vadodara Circle in a move to attract textile traffic which is currently moving by road.
The Rail-Post Logistic Service will be initially available for the benefit of customers from Surat and Udhna area. This scheme will help in providing door to door experience with advanced security and tracking facility to the parcel customers.
Thakur stated that the Parcel Shed at Surat station has been revamped with advanced facilities such as Ball Transfer Unit Decks (castor beds), conveyor belts system on the same lines as available at airport cargo terminals. “Also, the Parcel Van has been fitted with Ball Transfer Unit Decks for easy movement of consignment boxes. These will assist in easy and quick transportation of the consignments from the Parcel Van of the Postal Department to the Parcel Van of the train,” he said.
Explaining further, Thakur said that the consignments will be loaded into specially customized cargo boxes of varying sizes fitted with pallets and tracking technology. “Such empty boxes shall be made available at both ends to minimize transit time for loading and unloading. The Department of Post shall aggregate the parcel from the customers, lock and seal them and bring them to Railway Station for loading in Parcel Van attached to Tapti Ganga Express.”
The Parcel Management System of CRIS has been customised to generate a single P-Way bill, combining the First Mile, Middle Mile and Last Mile legs, he said adding that the Postal Department has also made a provision of insurance cover of 0.03% for the value of cargo.
This scheme is a first of its kind over Indian Railways and has been started as a pilot project on Train No. 19045 Tapti Ganga Express departing from Surat station. The first Parcel Van loaded with consignments departed from Surat for Varanasi on March 31. A total of 10.5 Tons were loaded with yarn/textiles in the VPU. Out of the 10.5 Tons, 8.8 Tons was the Rail Post Cargo and 1.7 Tons was Rail Middle Mile cargo.
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