Indian Railways developing Vande Bharat parcel trains for quick e-commerce shipping

NEW DELHI : Indian Railways is working on an express parcel delivery service – tentatively named as Vande Bharat Parcel Service – targeting niche products, e-commerce shipping items that include apparels, mobile phones, other lighte-weight cargo and perishable to quick-commerces, a senior official aware of the discussions told.

Prototype and designing of these special coaches – which need to carry smaller cargo of lower volumes – are under works.

“Coach designing is under-way at ICF and one other facility. These will soon be presented to the Railway Board for clearances, post which construction of coaches will commence,” the official said.

These trains are being designed targeting e-commerce cargo, specially items like apparels, mobile phones and so on which now-a-days are being pushed under “one day delivery” or “express delivery” options. Quick commerce items like smaller white goods and so on can also be pushed.

Plans are afoot to take up some perishable items, including flowers, with reefer containers being considered for transport.

Routes on which these high speed parcel trains can run, include ones likes the Delhi – Mumbai route – to be covered in an estimated span of 10 hours; and the Delhi – Chennai route – to be covered in an estimated span of 24 hours.

“We will decide on the routes as and when the plans firm up,” the official said.

Initial plans indicate that these trains will have speeds of 160 – 180 kmph, be made on the existing Vande Bharat platforms; and at least three different coach sizes – of 8 metres. 11 metres and 13 metres – are being designed.

Each of the Vande Bharat Parcel express trains will have 16 coaches – single storey ones.

“We could also explore 8 – 12 coach set-ups, but the ideal plan is to have a 16 (coach) * 16 (tonne cargo) configuration,” the official said.

The coaches will be lighter and smaller in size than the standard 25 metre ones to accommodate quicker loading of specialised cargo. It will also have retractable roller floor system with locking facilities for easy handling of pallets. Payload of these vehicles are expected at 264 tonnes.

The idea is to ensure completion of loading a 7-8 minute time frame, much faster than the normal cargo loading time in case of container cargoes.