Indian Railways is preparing to launch a door-to-door parcel service in Pune and seven other major cities, allowing customers to have packages collected from their homes and delivered to their intended addresses through a new digital booking platform.
The service will initially cover Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune after a pilot initiative was reported to have received a positive response. The proposed service, called “Rail Parcel App–Ghar Se Ghar Tak”, will connect customers with selected logistics partners for collection, packing and final delivery.
Under the planned arrangement, private logistics companies will collect parcels from customers’ homes and transport them to the relevant railway station. Indian Railways will handle the movement of the parcels between the two railway stations, while logistics partners will be responsible for delivery from the destination station to the recipient’s address.
According to details attributed to a senior railway official, customers will be able to begin booking a door-to-door parcel up to 15 days before the scheduled departure of the train. Bookings will remain open until one day before departure. Logistics partners will be permitted to hand over parcels to railway staff up to one hour before the train leaves.
The mobile application is expected to function as a digital platform between customers and selected logistics service providers. Customers will be able to book the service and make payments online. Logistics companies may also provide packaging and other related services, although the report does not specify the list of participating companies or the final tariff structure for the door-to-door service.
The proposed service comes as Indian Railways is also offering a separate parcel transport incentive during the festive season. The railway board has announced a scheme under which companies consolidating parcels can book round-trip transportation. The charge for the return arrangement will be one-and-a-half times the fare for a one-way journey, resulting in a reported 25% reduction in the combined transport cost for both directions.
The concession will not apply automatically to every type of railway parcel booking, the official cited in the report clarified. Its relevance is expected to be particularly high during periods such as Diwali and Christmas, when businesses increase inventories and require additional movement of goods.
The new model places Indian Railways at the centre of the long-distance segment while outsourcing the first-mile and last-mile portions of the delivery chain. This structure could make railway parcel transport more accessible to customers who currently have to arrange separate transport to and from stations, but the service’s effectiveness will depend on the availability, coverage and reliability of participating logistics partners.
Customers who cancel a booking before the parcel is collected will be eligible for a refund of the railway transportation charge. A clerical fee of Rs 10 will be deducted from the refund. Further details on launch dates, service areas within each city, parcel categories and the final list of logistics partners have not been provided in the report.
