Indian Railways set to carry E-commerce consignment
The Indian Railways has started its pilot project of allowing e-commerce consignments in non-peak hours. The project was earlier launched by the Eastern Railways for the first time in India when it allowed the Amazon consignments in its EMU local (suburban services)
Regulations
- The rate chargeable is that of Luggage Rate that is Rs 5,537 per day.
- The Railways has permitted the usage of the vendor compartment alone to fulfill the consignment. This therefore will not create disruptions to the existing systems.
- The Railways have fixed the non-peak hours for the transit. It is between 11.00 hours and 16.00 hours.
- The agreement was signed by Indian Railways and Amazon Group for a period of three months. Sources say that this is just a trial. Upon success, it will be extended to other e-commerce groups as well.
Significance
This will benefit both the railways and the e-commerce industries. The Railways can earn revenue without additional stress or burden on existing system. It helps e-commerce to reduce its transit time. With new rail routes, gauge up gradation, private trains, new tourism connects the railways recently have undergone massive change over. Inclusion of e-commerce into its transit is yet another major transformation being introduced. The purpose of all the new initiatives is to earn additional revenues to the railways sector.
The transformation and up gradation are essential as Railways fetch around 2 lakh crore (2018-19) revenue to the country.
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Month: Current Affairs - October, 2019