Delivery of a parcel at a wrong station ails the railways’ present system. (Express Photo)
The PUNE Division of Indian Railways will soon be part of the ‘Parcel Management System’ (PMS), the railways’ initiative to overhaul its parcel delivery system. The digitised system allows customers track parcels in real-time, among other features. The grievance cell of railways’ Pune Division as well as its complaint window on Twitter are often inundated with complaints about delay in delivery or misplaced parcels.
Several stations in Western Railway – Mumbai Central, Dadar and Bandra Terminus – are part of PMS. The facility is also available at Surat station as well as Vapi, Valsad, Baroda, Ratlam and Kota. Pune is among 57 stations across India to be added to the system. The railway parcelling system is popular among traders, who use it for transportation of perishables and non-perishables, including books, medicines, furniture and electronic appliances. Those shifting cities also use it for transportation of two-wheelers.
Officials said PMS was part of the railways’ efforts to digitise key operations. Two other digitised systems introduced by the railways are Coaching Operation Information System (COIS) and Freight Operation Information System (FOIS) for tracking and monitoring of passenger and goods bookings, respectively. “PMS will make booking and delivery of parcels much more efficient, quick and discretion-free. It will also bring in more transparency and enable online tracking of packages by customers on their mobile phones or email through a 10-digit unique Progressive Reference Record (PRR) number – a system similar to those offered by online shopping websites,” said an official. “Work on making the system up and running is currently going on at the parcel office…,” he said.
Officials feel the system will weed out corruption as well as overloading of packages. Overloading or delivery of a parcel at a wrong station ails the railways’ present system. “As everything is manual, users are at the mercy of employees. If a parcel is buried under bigger cartons, it often ‘over-travels’ to subsequent stations from where it has to be re-booked for the destination station, taking longer for delivery,” said an official.
Passengers will also save money. Now, they pay Rs 10 per hour for an undelivered parcel as railway clerks often don’t inform customers that their consignments had arrived. “With PMS, a message will be immediately sent to a customer as soon as his parcel arrives,” said a senior railway officer, requesting anonymity.