Two AC-2 tier coaches carrying chocolates from Cadbury’s facility at Sri City in Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh will leave for Delhi on Thursday as part of Indian Railways’ fresh push to make innovative use of its resources for revenue generation. In search of innovative use of its capacity, Railways has forayed into the business of transporting chocolates in its air conditioned coaches so that they don’t melt. Railways aims to cater to the transportation needs of Cadbury’s parent company Mondelez, which has factories in Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh and supplies go to all parts of the country. Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has combined the resources of Railways and India Post to come up with a time-tabled innovative parcel service — Rail-Post Gati Shakti Express Cargo Service. Under the service, the Department of Post will book parcels and the Railways will carry them with a guaranteed transit time in its parcel trains. Once at its destination, the postal department will carry the parcel to their last-mile destinations. After the inaugural service from Tirupati (Sri City), the same will be made available at Secunderabad, Surat, Bengaluru and Delhi in the due course. Under the service, the Railways will run 12 pairs of trains every week, offering to transport items that traditionally go by trucks. Policymakers have decided that freeing businesses of the need to transport items in bulk through railways was a step in the right direction. Accordingly, Railways has come up with multiple plans to carry non-bulk quantities as well. In addition, separate, dedicated units are being institutionalised at the division and zone levels to make it easier for business houses to interact with Railways for parcel needs. Instructions have gone out from the Railway ministry to all its zones at all levels to manage the parcel business with utmost care and keep getting newer items for transportation even if they are “non-bulk” or less than truck quantity.
