In an effort to increase the share of parcel business to the overall revenue of railways, railway minister Mamata Banerjee has introduced the premium parcel services in India. “Touted as the “Faster Parcel Services”, the trains will initially run on a pilot basis on three routes between Tughalakabad (Delhi) and Royapuram (Chennai), Tughalakabad (Delhi) and Vapi (near Mumbai) and Tughalakabad (Delhi) and Howrah,” Banerjee said. According to Banerjee, this is envisaged as a time-tabled service from dedicated terminals with guaranteed transit time and web-based bookings.

Out of the estimated revenue of Rs 88,419 crore for 2009-10, a small 3.1% or Rs 2,750 crore is expected to be mainly constituted by parcel business.

“In the first quarter (April-June) of the current fiscal, the freight growth was over 5%. In June itself, it was as much as 9% which means that the economy is looking up,” Shri Prakash, railway board member (traffic) said.

The railways get bulk of revenue from the freight traffic which was impacted in 2008-09 by the slowdown in the Indian economy on the back of global financial crisis. “The second half of the 2008-09 saw a decline in freight traffic with the result that the freight target of 850 million tonne was missed,” Prakash said.

According to the Railway Budget released on Friday, freight loading stood at 833 million tonne for 2008-09, a growth of 5% over 2007-08. However, on the back of recovery, the railway ministry is estimating an increase of another 5.8% in the current financial year at 882 million tonne.

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