New Delhi, Apr 15 (IANS): With the rails free of passenger trains traffic, the Indian Railways (IR) has used them to earn money by transporting essential items. It has run special parcel trains, transported 20,400 tonnes of consignment and earned Rs 7.54 crore during the 21-day lockdown.

A senior railway ministry official said special parcel vans were made available for mass transportation by e-commerce entities and other customers, including state governments.

"Then railways decided to run time-tabled special parcel trains on select routes, to ensure uninterrupted supply of essential items," he said and added, these special parcel trains were being operated on 65 routes.

The official said by 6 p.m. on April 14, of the 77 trains, 75 were time-tabled special parcel trains, with 1,835 tonnes of material loaded, earning the IR Rs 63 lakh in a day.

It had run 522 special parcel trains by 6 p.m. on April 14. Of this, 458 were time-tabled trains that ferried 20,474 tonnes consignment.

The IR had announced suspension of passenger, mail and express trains from March 24 to April 14. But with the extension of lockdown till May 3, it has extended the suspension and stopped the ticket booking until further notice.