Amazon India has announced that it will be using Indian Railways’ special trains to ensure delivery of goods. In a statement issued, Amazon said that it will ship consignments through the Covid-19 Parcel Special Trains, which were introduced by Indian Railways. Since the lockdown began, Indian Railways ramped up its operations in 55 lanes and Amazon will be utilising them.
“This enhanced network will enable sellers in Amazon India’s network to ship their products across the country and keep their businesses running, thereby, allowing people to access a more diverse selection of essential products,” Amazon said in the statement.
This partnership is an extension of what Amazon and Indian Railways were working on. Last year, Amazon India had partnered with Indian Railways for inter-city transportation of e-commerce packages on 13 lanes. Now, that has been increased to 55 lanes. Amazon had also set up pickup kiosks for customers in Kolkata and Mumbai.
Amazon — like all other e-commerce companies — has been selling only essentials goods for over a month now. Ever since India announced a lockdown to combat the spread of coronavirus,
Meanwhile, Amazon in the US has announced plans of starting its own testing lab. The lab on which work has been underway will be for Amazon workers to begin with. In a blog post by Amazon, the company detailed how and what it intends to do. The company said that its research scientists, program managers, procurement specialists and software engineers have moved from their normal day jobs onto a dedicated team to work on this initiative. “We have begun assembling the equipment we need to build our first lab and hope to start testing small numbers of our front line employees soon,” the blog post noted.
The company said that while it’s not sure how far they will get in the relevant timeframe “but we think it’s worth trying, and we stand ready to share anything we learn with others.”
