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, mega parcel hubs, and implement strategies for efficient movement from hubs to spokes. 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 ecommerce sector.
Innovating on behalf of customers
The partnership between Indian Railways and Amazon India aligns with Indian Government’s vision of 'Viksit Bharat and Viksit Rail’. 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. “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,” says Ravinder Goyal, Member (Operations and Business Development), Railway Board, Indian Railways.
I encourage 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.
A partnership with many firsts
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 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. The DFCs are designed to decongest the existing rail network, increase the average speed of freight trains, enable the operations of heavy haul trains, link existing ports and industrial areas for faster movement of freight, and reduce the overall cost of logistics. Amazon India’s operations 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 1-day and 2-day delivery promises to customers in the hinterlands.
Amazon offers fast delivery on the largest selection
Amazon India continues to innovate for enabling an ever-larger selection for fast, reliable, and convenient delivery options for customers across India.
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.
“Since 2019, we have collaborated to create an innovative logistics model that combines Amazon India'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.” To ensure it caters to evolving customer needs, Amazon India has been strengthening the selection of items available for same-day and next-day delivery to ensure it caters to evolving customer needs. Remember, Prime members in India get free, unlimited same-day delivery on more than 10 lakhs items and next-day delivery on more than 40 lakhs items on Amazon.in.
