RATIONALIZED RATE STRUCTURE FOR BOOKING
OF PARCEL AND LUGGAGE ON RAILWAYS
Indian Railways have
introduced rationalized rate structure for parcels, all types
of commodities and luggage traffic with effect from April 1, 2003.
In the rationalized
rate structures for parcels, all types of commodities including
luggage will be charged uniformly at the same rates, under four
different Scales, depending on the types of service.
The four Scales
for different parcel rates and the four corresponding types of
parcel services are : Scale—R for Rajdhani Parcel Service on Rajdhani
Express trains, Scale—P for Premier Parcel Service on notified
Mail/ Express and Shatabdi Express trains, Scale—S for Standard
Parcel Service on other Mail/Express trains, Shatabdi Express
trains and Parcel Express trains and Scale—E for Economy Parcel
Service on ordinary passenger trains.
The Zonal Railways
are required to notify such Mail/Express trains for Premier Parcel
Service whose utilization of parcel space during the preceding
twelve months was 60 per cent or more. The notification will be
separate for Up and Down directions of the trains.
The same criterion
will also apply to those Shatabdi Express Trains having more than
60 per cent utilization of parcel space. Such trains will be upgraded
from Scale—S to Scale—P after due notification.
Registered newspapers
and magazines will be charged at same rates under the lowest Scale—E
by all trains.
Minimum distance
for charge for the registered newspapers and magazines will be
250 kilometres with a minimum charge of Rs. 2, whereas minimum
distance for charge for all other parcels will be 50 kilometres
with a minimum charge of Rs. 30.
The rationalized
parcel rates are advantageous to the users through simplification
of the rates and reduced parcel rates. This is intended to avoid
overcharging and other hassles to the users besides improving
the volume of parcel traffic to generate additional earnings from
parcel traffic. This also forms part of new marketing strategies
to mop up additional revenues by attracting more parcel traffic.
These instructions
and the new parcel rate tables have been placed on the website
of the Ministry of Railways at www.indianrailways.gov.in
.
The rationalized
rates of parcel traffic follow announcement by the Railway Minister
Shri Nitish Kumar in his Railway Budge 2003-2004 speech on February
26, 2003 in the Lok Sabha.
