Railways, postal department join hands in parcel business

New Delhi, Feb 27 (IANS) The Indian Railways and the Department of Posts on Monday entered into a partnership for facilitating parcel services utilising the space in the guard's compartment on selected trains, said an official.

The arrangement will help both the postal department and private players transport their parcels, according to an official press release.

Parcel is the fastest moving freight business of the Indian Railways. Through this new Business Parcel Policy, not only India Post but any private player can also book space in trains for movement of their parcel," said Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu while launching the scheme here.

Before rolling out this scheme on an all India basis, a test-run of the scheme was carried out on the Howrah-Dibrugarh Kamrup Express and Hyderabad-Nizamuddin Deccan Express.

"After the success of the test, today this scheme is being rolled out at all India level," he added.

As of now, the railways and the Department of Posts have selected five trains for this scheme