Kolkata : Indian Railways, aptly called the ‘Life Line of The Nation’ is poised to fight against the Coronavirus pandemic by adopting various measures including movement of Time Tabled Parcel Express Trains for maintaining uninterrupted supply of essential commodities to every nook and corner of the country during the crisis period in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. As a part of commitment to the nation, South Eastern Railwayhas already geared up its entire network to runTime Tabled Parcel Express Trains towards different destinations in the country. South Eastern Railway, during this national crisis, has already run 3708 trips of Time Tabled Parcel Express Trains carrying essential commodities viz., food items, groceries, medicines, medical equipment including PPE kits, masks, sanitizers, coveralls, gloves, fish, fruits, eggs, cotton goods, gunny bags, vegetables, onion, ginger, garlic and other daily need items to different parts of the country from 2nd April to 21st August, 2020.
South Eastern Railway during the above period has carried 71,000 tonnes of parcel traffic containing 27,15,090 number of packages to different places in the country.These Time Tabled Parcel Express Trains are running between Shalimar-Ranchi, Howrah-KSR Bengaluru, Shalimar-Mumbai CSMT, Tatanagar-Itwari, Howrah-Secunderabad, Shalimar-Porbander etc. The above Parcel Express Trains also cater to the needs of the people residing around Kharagpur, Purulia, Balasore, Rourkela, Chakradharpur and other stations under SER’s jurisdiction in addition to major cities enroute.
South Eastern Railway has also started transporting parcel goods in the Special Trains in the path of existing Mail/ Express Trains which have been running with effect from 1st June, 2020.
This challenging robust task in the wake of COVID-19 has come into reality with the proper planning and overwhelming response from the dedicated workforce of frontline warriors of South Eastern Railway viz., loco pilots, guards, gangmen, trackmen, cabinmen, control staff working at stations and divisional headquarters who are putting their exemplary services to the country during this crisis period.
