New Delhi, Mar 29 (IANS): The Indian Railways on Sunday said that it has decided to run special parcel trains to ensure the supply of essential items like dairy products, medical equipments and medicines on several routes during the COVID-19 nationwide lockdown.

The Northern Railways in a statement said, "In its continuous effort of carrying essential commodities to different parts of the country through freight trains, Northern Railways has decided to run Parcel Special Trains to carry small quantities of essential items like dairy products, medical equipments and medicines, groceries, edible oil, other food items, etc."

It said that the Special Parcel express trains shall run on the New Delhi-Gauhati, New Delhi-Mumbai Central, New Delhi-Kalyan, New Delhi-Howrah, Chandigarh-Jaipur and Moga-Chhangsari Parcel Express. The Northern Railway said that movement of parcel specials shall be from point to point basis as per the extent rules.

It also asked the interested parties to contact the Chief Parcel Supervisors of the loading stations.

In a bid to stop the spread of the COVID-19 across the country, the railways has decided to suspend the passenger, mail and express train services from March 24 to April 14 in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of 21-day nationwide lockdown.

The railways is only running the freight train services to ensure the supply of essential items across the country and in the last five days, the national transporter has carried over 1.9 lakh rakes across the country.