Railways have taken a major step to supply essential goods in the country.  For the first time, Railway has issued a time-table of 109 parcel trains to transport essential goods and other goods to every corner of the country.  The  said on Wednesday that 40 new routes have been identified for such trains.  Railways said that this would boost the availability of essential and important commodities for common citizens, industry and agriculture during the corona virus outbreak.

Railways said in a statement that these services are expected to grow further.  Railways said that local industries, e-commerce companies, interested groups, individuals and other potential loaders can book parcels on these trains. Parcel trains are planned from time to time as per the demand of the customers. They are Delhi, Mumbai, Connecting important areas of the country like Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

Railways also informed that proper connectivity has also been ensured to Guwahati to ensure supply to the northeastern region of the country. Other important cities connected through these trains are Bhopal, Allahabad, Dehradun, Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Vadodara,  Ranchi, Gorakhpur, Thiruvananthapuram, Salem, Warangal, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Rourkela, Bilaspur, Bhusawal, Tatanagar, Jaipur, Jhansi, Agra, Nasi  A, Nagpur, Akola, Jalgaon, Surat, Pune, Raipur, Patna, Asansol, Kanpur, Jaipur, Bikaner, Ajmer, Gwalior, Mathura, Nellore, Jabalpur are also included.

According to the railway, around 58 routes (109 trains) have been identified for parcel trains since the start of the lockdown.  On April 5, 27 routes were identified,  17 routes are for regularly scheduled services, while the remaining routes are for single trips only.