Indian Railways to team up with ecommerce industry for logistics

The lifeline of transportation in India, the railway network, is the next to jump on to the ecommerce bandwagon. The Railway Budget (to be announced shortly) might have provisions to take advantage of the opportunities in the online commerce and FMCG industry.

Various modes to aid ecommerce delivery

The Indian Railways is exploring different options to enable transport and logistics. The state-owned transport organisation might look at bringing in Road Railers to enable door to door delivery. As the name suggests, Road Railers are vehicles that can travel on roads as well as the rail tracks.

An official of the railway ministry said, “The trial run for Road Railers is over and we may soon look to introduce it on the Delhi-Chennai route.” Road Railers can be quite helpful in taking care of delivery in the last mile.

Another possibility is the use of roll on roll off (RO-RO) wagons, where delivery trucks can be directly lifted onto railway wagons, and dropped off. This feature will come in particularly handy in decongesting the clogged roads in India, for at least a brief stretch.

The official said, “We will carry out a detailed study and hold discussions with industry players to explore potential areas which the Indian Railways can tap in to boost freight growth,” the official went on, “For instance, there is a lot of potential in horticulture. Its output has grown faster than food grains in the past few years.”

Ecommerce aiding ancillary industries

The government is slowly but surely warming up to the massive economic potential of the ecommerce industry. First India Post, and now Indian Railways have found that ‘scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ will have long term benefits for everybody. Hopefully this movement will also lead to bettering other resources, like removing potholes and creating a structured traffic system.