In a bid to enable faster deliveries to customers amid the nationwide lockdown, Amazon India has decided to transport its consignments via rail across the country and is leveraging the ‘COVID-19 Parcel Special Trains’ introduced by Indian Railways.
The etailer on Monday announced that it has strengthened its partnership with the national transporter and has ramped up its operations to 55 lanes.
“This enhanced network will enable sellers in Amazon India’s network to ship their products across the country and keep their businesses running, thereby, allowing people to access a more diverse selection of essential products,” it said in a statement.
Indian Railways with the support of the Railway Board and the zones across the country (Western, Central, Northern, Eastern, South Central, Southern, South Eastern, North East Frontier, North Western and South Western) have created a proactive solution to provide support for transportation during the lockdown.
Transportation Services Director at Amazon India Abhinav Singh said with the support of these special trains the company can further fulfil customer orders with enhanced speed and capacity.
“In these unprecedented times, we understand the importance of ensuring that critical supplies reach our customers across the country. We are grateful for this timely decision by the Indian Railways to offer freight movement solutions during these challenging times,” he added.
With an aim to contain the spread of COVID-19, government initially announced a complete 21-day nationwide lockdown on March 23, which was later extended till May 3. During this period government had only allowed delivery of essential goods through e-commerce platforms.
In the latest guidelines, issued on April 16, the Ministry of Home Affairs had barred the e-commerce platforms from supplying non-essential goods during the lockdown period. However, they have been requesting government to expand the list of essentials to include ‘work from home’ and ‘study from home’ products.
In 2019, Amazon and Indian Railways had joined hands for inter-city transportation of its consignments on 13 lanes. It was then when the two sides had also set up pickup kiosks for customers in Kolkata and Mumbai.
