Indian Railways' parcel management system to be extended to 523 locations

The new parcel management system (PMS) of the Indian Railways will soon be extended from 84 locations to 523 as part of its transformation geared towards providing transportation for small consignments over a vast network of stations.

As per a statement, small businesses and traders in smaller cities and towns have been using these services for transportation of their merchandise from bigger cities and production centres to the place of their business in a fast, reliable and cheap manner.

The charging of parcels is only on the basis of weight and volume, and not on the basis of the type of commodity.

"The computerisation of the parcel management system (PMS) is being extended from 84 locations to additional 143 locations in phase-II and 523 locations in phase-III. This will bring enhancements such as provision for 120 days advance booking, showing the availability of parcel space on the online e-forwarding note module on the PMS website, and generation of forwarding note online by registered customers with fare estimate," the statement said.

Other enhancements include booking of parcel/luggage at parcel office at stations through computerised counters and automatic capturing of weight through electronic weighing of consignment, barcoding on each consignment for tracking, status updates of packages through GPRS network transmission of data, and SMS updates to customers at each stage.

The new PMS will also include an FSLA (Freight System Ledger Accounting) module for online preparation of mfest for registered newspapers and magazines.

( With inputs from ANI )