Amazon to use Covid-19 Parcel Special trains in India to transport goods

• Amazon India announced that it is strengthening its partnership with Indian Railways to ramp up its operations across 55 lanes during lockdown.
• In 2019, Amazon had initially partnered with Indian Railways across 13 lanes to transfer inter-city goods.
• E-commerce platforms are currently allowed to deliver only essential items.

Amazon India will now use the Covid-19 special trains of the Indian railways to transfer food faster. The e-commerce major announced that it is strengthening its partnership with Indian railways to ramp up its operations across 55 lanes during the lockdown.

In 2019, Amazon had initially partnered with Indian Railways across 13 lanes to transfer inter-city goods.

“In these unprecedented times, we understand the importance of ensuring that critical supplies reach our customers across the country. With the support of COVID-19 Parcel Special trains introduced by the Indian Railways, we are confident that we can further fulfil customer orders with enhanced speed and capacity,” said Abhinav Singh, Director, Amazon Transportation Services, Amazon India.

Amazon India and Indian Railways have a long-term partnership that is focused on “developing the rail network to supplement the road and air networks for transportation of customer packages with improved speed and reliability”.

Currently owing to the coronavirus lockdown in India, e-commerce platforms are allowed to deliver only essential goods.

However, in the past week, there has been a mixed signals lot of back and forth from the Ministry of Home Affairs wherein it first allowed e-commerce services to deliver non-essential goods but within a day, it rolled back the advisory to limit delivery only for essential goods.

Meanwhile, Amazon also said that it has partnered with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). Through this partnership, Amazon plans to drive awareness on physical hygiene and social distancing in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The partnership will identify volunteers, namely ‘COVID-19 Digital Heroes’ through digital outreach across various platforms. Students who are a part of Amazon’s ALEXA student ambassador program will also act as COVID-19 Digital Heroes and help amplify the campaign further,” Amazon said in a statement.

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