Amazon India to use more rail routes for faster deliveries amid lockdown

Amazon India on Monday said it will use 55 railway routes to transport goods between cities as the e-commerce major works on ways to ensure faster deliveries to customers amid the nationwide lockdown.

Strengthening its partnership with the Indian Railways, the company would now be utilising 55 railway lanes.

Last year, Amazon India had partnered with Indian Railways for inter-city transportation of e-commerce packages on 13 lanes. It had also set up pickup kiosks for customers in Kolkata and Mumbai.

Lanes are rail routes between two cities or towns.

Amazon India will transport consignments via rail across the country and is leveraging the 'COVID-19 Parcel Special Trains' introduced by the Indian Railways to ramp up its operations to 55 lanes during the lockdown period, according to a statement.

Indian Railways with the support of the Railway Board has created a proactive solution to provide support for transportation during the lockdown, it said.

The railway zones are Western, Central, Northern, Eastern, South Central, Southern, South Eastern, North East Frontier, North Western and South Western.

"This enhanced network will enable sellers in Amazon India's network to ship their products across the country and keep their businesses running, thereby, allowing people to access a more diverse selection of essential products," the statement said.

Amazon India Director (Amazon Transportation Services) Abhinav Singh said that with the support of the special trains, the company is confident of fulfilling customer orders with enhanced speed and capacity.

"We are grateful for this timely decision by the Indian Railways to offer freight movement solutions during these challenging times," he added.

During the nationwide lockdown, e-commerce companies have been allowed to sell only essential items like grocery, healthcare and pharmaceutical products.

The players and industry associations have been urging the government to expand the list of essentials to include 'work from home' and 'study from home' products'