New policy for railways' parcel handling business soon: Kharge

Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge Wednesday said that the government will formulate a new policy for promoting the parcel handling business of the railways.

"A new policy on parcels will be formulated which shall also encourage transportation of milk across the country," Kharge said in his maiden rail budget speech for the next fiscal to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament.

"A new concept of hub and spoke for parcel business will be introduced. Third party warehousing in special parcel terminals is also envisaged."

According to the interim rail budget, parcel trains will be run from nominated terminals and special parcel trains will be run on scheduled timings for attracting business from the time-sensitive cargo segment.

The minister further said that restrictions on movement of imported commodities through containers have been eased.

"Further, to increase throughput of container traffic, the permissible carrying capacity of 20 feet containers has been enhanced by 4 tonnes by necessary upgrade of rolling stock," the minister said.