To keep supply chain on track, railways starts ‘Amazon-like’ service, delivers 40 tonnes on 1st day

Arvind Chauhan | TNN | Updated: Apr 16, 2020, 11:28 IST

The SETU team working and coordinating from Prayagraj, Tundla, Udaipur, Ramagundam, Krishnapatnam and Mumbai.

AGRA: Railways has launched a helpline for placing freight service orders to ease the supply chain backlog since the nationwide lockdown to contain Covid-19. The pilot project, Setu, an initiative of 21 railway officers, including probationers, will make it possible to place orders of any size, for any item, to be delivered anywhere — even the smallest, most remote town.
It is basically a customised delivery service. Anyone who wants to get something delivered can call up the SETU helpline (8448 8484 77) and place an order. A progressive reference number (PRN) is generated, which the customer can use to track the item. Railway staff will then collect the item and send it across. Staff at the destination station, from where the order was placed, will receive the item — which then can be collected by whoever placed the order.
“We wanted to provide a single-point solution, so anyone could dial the helpline and a dedicated team would do the rest,” said Dr Sanchit Tyagi, senior divisional commercial manager of the Prayagraj division, who came up with the initiative.
Within a day of the project's launch on Monday, Setu received and delivered nearly 40 tonnes of goods, including a package with just 200g of medicine from Delhi to Banswara (Rajasthan), two consignments of 500g of life-saving drugs each from Agra to Madhubani and another from Delhi to Bhagalpur, while 66kg of pharmaceutical products were delivered from Prayagraj to Banda and 80kg of medicines from Delhi to Agra.
The Setu helpline also delivered 10 tonnes of industrial material to make masks from Bhilwara to Surat and 2,000 kg of medicine packaging material from Meerut to Goa. The Setu also received 60 tonnes of orders for fertilizer delivery.
Two days before the lockdown began, the railways had started operations of parcel trains to transport essential goods across the country — there are 184 now that have transported 6.75 lakh wagons of commodities across the country so far. But they carry bulk supplies — like milk from Gujarat to Delhi or food products from Punjab to Assam — and do not reach all the country’s remote areas.
Then, last week, the railways delivered 20 kg camel milk powder and 20 litres camel milk to a woman who tweeted in desperation that her autistic child survives on it and she had not been able to stock up before the lockdown.
“It made us think, there has to be a way we can bring this closer to people who need it most. Our assessment revealed that people and the administration were facing problems with getting supplies delivered,” said Tyagi. And with support of his colleagues including fifteen Indian Railways Traffic Service (IRTS) probationers based at Udaipur training center, Prayagraj senior divisional operation manager (Sr DOM) Manu Dubey, Sr DOM Mumbai Suhani Mishra, Sanjay Kumar the additional traffic manager (ATM) Tundla, area officers Mallela Srikant and Visharl Arjun of Ramagundam and Krishnapatnam Port respectively — Setu was born.
Twelve Indian Railways Traffic Service (IRTS) probationers, led by Tyagi and senior divisional operation manager Manu Dubey, make up the SETU team. “No matter what the destination, the railway parcel service will deliver the item. It works like Amazon,” he added.
Sanjay Kumar, additional traffic manager (Tundla), who is involved in the initiative, added, “The response has been overwhelming and it’s just been 24 hours of the launch.”