New Delhi, Sep 3 (IANS): Union Railway and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday held a meeting with top courier service agencies to facilitate robust partnership with Railways' freight and parcel service.

According to railway ministry officials, during the meeting it was informed that the national transporter was set to offer reliable, fast, affordable and easy to handle parcel services for logistics or courier agencies. The official said that the meeting was called to discuss and explore the possibilities of expanding the business of private parcel services through Indian Railways.

In order to quickly work out the best guidelines and ease of doing business, a joint working group is going to be formed consisting of Railway officials and representatives of logistics/courier providers.

Speaking on the occasion Goyal said "win win solutions" needed to be there to ensure a sustainable business development for all. He said that it may also be noted that a of total 5,292 parcel trains were run by Indian Railways from March 22 till September 2 out of which 5,139 have been time-tabled trains.

"Total 3,18,453 tonnes of consignments have been loaded in these trains and the earnings have been Rs 116.19 crore," Goyal said. Railway Ministry officials said that Indian Railways freight loading for the month of August this year with total 94.33 million tonnes surpassed last year's loading for the same month.

The official said that a total of 1,41,049 rakes with 451.38 million tonnes of freight were loaded by Indian Railways from March 25 to September 1 this year. The Indian Railways is also giving a number of concessions or discounts to make Railways freight movement attractive.