Western Railway’s parcel special trains are traversing across the country to keep the supply of essential commodities moving, even during the difficult time of the COVID pandemic. Inspite of various hurdles and labour constraints during the time of lockdown, Western Railway has crossed the figure of 600 parcel special trains by running total 616 such trains during the lockdown.
The revenue generated is Rs 51.51 crore. In continuation to this, on Tuesday, three parcel special trains, including a milk rake left from various stations of WR. These included two parcel specials viz Bandra terminus to Jammu Tawi and Porbandar to Shalimar. A milk special rake also left from Palanpur to Hind Terminal.
From March 23 to Oct 19, 2020, commodities weighing above 1.53 lakh tonnes have been transported by WR through its parcel special trains, which mainly included agricultural produce, medicines, fish, milk etc. During this period, 106 milk special trains were run, with a load of more than 80,700 tonnes and 100 per cent utilisation of the wagons. Similarly, 458 COVID special parcel trains with a load of almost 49,000 tonnes were also run to transport various essential commodities. In addition to this, 52 indented rakes carrying more than 23,000 tonnes were also run.
Loss of passenger revenue due to lockdown
The loss of revenue on account of Coronavirus has been approx Rs 3000 crore. Inspite of this, resulting to cancellation of tickets since March 1 October 19, 2020 WR has ensured to return refund amount of about Rs 454 crore. Till now, 70.61 lakh passengers have cancelled their tickets and have received their refund amount accordingly.