Amazon India expands partnership with Indian Railways

 Amazon India is expanding its partnership with Indian Railways to scale up the rail network’s use for faster movement of customer packages.

Under a MoU signed between Amazon India and Indian Railways, the two parties will work towards identifying hub-and-spoke networks, priority railway zones and mega parcel hubs, and implement strategies for efficient movement from hubs to spokes, says a release from Amazon.

"Amazon India and Indian Railways will also jointly work towards establishing a hub and spoke model for one origin-destination pair and leverage learnings from that to define requirements needed for scaling it up across the network. The plan covers first- and last-mile requirements, transit times, cost options and policy enablers to boost parcel volumes on railways. A joint task force will be created to ensure more consistent operational timelines that meet the requirements of the e-commerce sector."

The partnership between Railways and Amazon India aligns with the Central Government’s vision of Viksit Bharat and Viksit Rail, the release added. "It will increase multimodality and use the rail network as an economical and sustainable mode of transportation. The partnership also exemplifies Amazon India's long-term commitment to invent for and on behalf of customers in association with institutions of national importance such as Indian Railways and India Post."

Ravinder Goyal, Member (Operations and Business Development), Railway Board, Indian Railways says: “I commend Amazon for the MoU signed with Indian Railways. This collaboration and partnership will further help railways to understand the need 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.

"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 adoption of rail for parcel delivery, and I therefore appeal to the e-commerce business to use this facility for mutual gain."

In 2019, Amazon India became the first e-commerce company to leverage the vast railway network by entering into an operational engagement with the Indian Railways to meet its customer promise of offering fast and reliable deliveries, the release added. "This express transportation solution carried parcel wagons on Rajdhani Express on the Mumbai-Delhi route. Since then, there has been a 15X increase in movement of Amazon India’s parcels in railway lanes. In 2023, the company further strengthened its association with the Indian Railways by becoming the first e-commerce logistics company to leverage Dedicated Freight Corridors or DFCs."

Amazon India’s operations have scaled from one train in 2019 to 120+ trains in 2024, operating 130 intercity routes across 91 unique destination cities. The Amazon India-Indian Railways partnership is one of the enablers for the company to offer one-day and two-day delivery promises to customers in the hinterlands, the release added.

"Our association with the Indian Railways aligns with the government's vision to leverage this iconic institution for India’s economic growth," says Abhinav Singh, Vice President, Operations, Amazon India. "It also reflects our focus on providing our customers across India access to unparalleled selection with fast and reliable deliveries. We remain committed to driving more innovations alongside the Indian Railways to better serve our customers."