New initiative by Railways, Postal dept for door-to-door delivery, pick up of parcels

In a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country, the Railways and Postal department in Kerala have entered into a tie-up for door-to-door delivery and pick up of parcels from Tuesday to help people during the lockdown.

The Thiruvananthapuram division of Southern Railways and Department of Posts, Kerala circle, came together for the initiative.

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The service has been started to mitigate the difficulties being faced by customers in sending and receiving parcels through the railway network during the lockdown period, a railway release said.

It would cater to the growing number of customers using the daily parcel trains between Thiruvananthapuram Central Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram Central Chennai Egmore.

Under this initiative, the first of its kind in the country, postal personnel will collect the parcel from the consigners premises and get them booked, the release said.

The trans-shipment will be through Railways from the nearest railway station to the destination railway station.

From there, the parcel will again be collected and delivered to the consignee at his doorstep by the Department of Posts.

A minimum charge will be collected from the customer under Logistics Post levied by Postal Department in addition to the charges levied by Indian Railways, the release said.

The service will be initially available at Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam Town, Aluva, and Thrissur.

The consigner may call the RailPost dedicated phone numbers Land line 0471-2464425, Mobile 9447957388; 9633973640 in advance to book the parcel or call 24x7 Railway Parcel Helpline Number 91-9567869381 for assistance.

This door-to-door trans-shipment facility would be available until the lockdown is over or for the next one month, whichever is later.

Customers may avail the facility to transport their items weighing upto 3.5 tonnes as a single shipment, the release said.

The Memorandum of Understanding for the service was signed by Dr Rajesh Chandran, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Thiruvananthapuram Division and Sayeed Rasheed, Director of Postal Services, Kerala Circle in the presence of Shirish Kumar Sinha, Divisional Railway Manager, Thiruvananthapuram Division.