Railways, Amazon sign deal to scale up use of train network for faster delivery of customer packages

NEW DELHI: The railway ministry and e-commerce marketplace Amazon India signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Thursday to further strengthen their existing partnership for reliable and fast transportation of Amazon India packages through the Indian Railways' robust regional network.

A press release issued by Amazon India said under the MoU, Amazon India and the railways will jointly work towards establishing a hub-and-spoke model for one origin-destination pair and leverage the learnings from that to define the requirements needed for scaling it up across the network.

"The plan covers first and last-mile requirements, transit times, cost options and policy enablers to boost parcel volumes on railways. Amazon India will also provide recommendations on requirements to ensure speedy and reliable distribution network for parcel logistics through railways," the release said.

"This development aims to ensure more consistent operational timelines to meet the requirements of the e-commerce sector," it added.

The release quoted Ravinder Goyal, Member (Operations and Business Development), Railway Board, as saying, "I commend Amazon for the MoU signed with Indian Railways. This collaboration and partnership will further help railways to understand the need of e-commerce businesses and plan transport services accordingly."

"The MoU is an important step towards enhancing the movement of e-commerce cargo through Indian Railways. I encourage the e-commerce sector to leverage the efficiency and sustainability of rail transport to streamline their logistics needs. Indian Railways has launched many parcel services as well as the Virtual Aggregation Platform (VAP) to ease and encourage adoption of rail for parcel delivery and I, therefore, appeal to the e-commerce business to use this facility for mutual gain," Goyal said.

Abhinav Singh, vice-president, operations, Amazon India, said the company's association with the Indian Railways aligns with the government's vision to leverage this iconic institution for India's economic growth.

"It also reflects our focus on providing our customers across India access to unparalleled selection with fast and reliable deliveries. Since 2019, we have collaborated to create an innovative logistics model that combines Amazon's e-commerce expertise with Indian Railways' vast and reliable network," Singh said.

Highlighting the company's partnership with the railways, the release said Amazon India started engaging with the Indian Railways in 2019 and became the first firm in the Indian e-commerce sector to partner with the national transporter to build an express transportation solution via rail to carry parcel wagons on the Rajdhani Express on the Mumbai-Delhi route.

"Over the last five years, Amazon has diligently scaled its operations from one train in 2019 to 120+ trains in 2024, operating 130 intercity routes across 91 unique destination cities through railways. This represents a 15-time increase in movement of Amazon's parcels through railway lanes since it began working with the Indian Railways in 2019," the release said.

"Amazon India's association with the Indian Railways has been one of the key enablers for the company to offer one-day and two-day delivery promises to customers across India," it added.

According to the release, Amazon India further strengthened its association with the railways in 2023 by becoming the first e-commerce logistics company to leverage dedicated freight corridors, which are designed to decongest the existing rail network, increase the average speed of freight trains, enable the operations of heavy-haul trains, link existing ports and industrial areas for a faster movement of freight, and reduce the overall cost of logistics.