Mumbai: Capitalising on the new policy of Railways, Bhiwandi Road station of Central Railway (CR) is fast becoming a hub for parcel activity. In the current financial year, the Central railway registered significant revenue of Rs232.50 crore, including Rs17.96 crore in the month of February alone, through the transportation of approximately 4.56 lakh ton of parcel and luggage. Rs6.25 crore revenue was generated from Bhiwandi station only.
The station in Mumbai Division lies on the Vasai-Diva-Panvel route that connects Central Railway and Western Railway. Located within the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR), many e-commerce companies like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and transport companies have their warehouses in Bhiwandi.
A CR official said, “Once a small town known for the power looms, Bhiwandi is turning into one of the biggest and busiest parcel terminals of the CR. The revenue was earned through 30 indent parcel trains from Bhiwandi-Jalgaon to Azra between April 2022 to February 2023.”
"Bhiwandi is a strategic location as the warehouses are located in close vicinity of the station and hence the first mile charges are reduced to an extent. Export for Bangladesh can also go directly as railways are already sending automobiles from Kalamboli to Bangladesh,” he added
Meanwhile, the CR’s performance in 2022-23 (April to February) has witnessed a record revenue of Rs78.86 crore in non-fare revenue as compared to Rs27.10 crore during the corresponding period last year, which is the highest among all zonal railways, showing an enormous increase of 191%.
18 tenders were awarded through e-auction with an annual license fee of Rs491.06 lakh. Five contracts for external vinyl wrapping on local trains with earnings of Rs243.30 lakh per annum for a period of 3 years was also awarded by the Mumbai division to the interested parties.
The CR earnings were Rs43.5 lakh per annum for a period of 5 years through, a truck/tempo parking cum staking contract at CSMT. The contract is given to a firm under a non-fare revenue scheme.
