New Delhi, August 30
Amazon India and the Ministry of Railways on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to further strengthen the existing partnership between the two for reliable and fast transportation of Amazon India packages through the railways network, the e-commerce company said in a statement.
As part of this MoU, Amazon India, and Indian Railways will jointly work towards establishing a model to cover first and last-mile requirements, transit times, cost options, and policy enablers to boost parcel volumes through railways.
"Our 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, said Abhinav Singh, Vice President, Operations, Amazon India.
"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. This continues to enable fast delivery of crores of products across the country. Going forward, we remain committed to driving more innovations alongside the Indian Railways to better serve our customers." said Abhinav Singh.
Over the last 5 years, Amazon said it has scaled its operations from one train in 2019 to over 120 trains in 2024.
This represents a 15X increase in the movement of Amazon's parcels through railways since it began working with the Indian Railways in 2019.
"I commend Amazon for the MOU signed with Indian Railways. This collaboration and partnership will further help railways to understand the needs 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," said Ravinder Goyal, Member (Operations and Business Development), Railway Board, 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 the adoption of rail for parcel delivery and I therefore appeal to the e-commerce business to use this facility for mutual gain said Ravinder Goyal.