In a major bonanza for the parcel senders, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar has proposed a substantial reduction in the rates between selected pairs of cities on commodities including magazines, machinery parts, fruits and vegetables among others.

The movement of parcels would now be lot more cheaper even in Rajdhani Express as the rate for luggage would now be 30 per cent lower at Rs 329 per quintal for the year 2003-04 down from Rs 470 a quintal between Delhi and Mumbai, according to the Railway Budget 2003-04 presented by Kumar on Wednesday.

On machinery parts, the rate has been reduced by 31 per cent at Rs 339 per quintal between Delhi and Howrah while on magazines the rate has been lowered to Rs 80 a quintal from Rs 117 during the current fiscal between Delhi and Bangalore.

While for movement of parcels by notified and express train too, the rates for oranges has been reduced by 8 per cent to Rs 114 per quintal between Nagpur and Delhi while for Betel leaves the reduction is 25 per cent betwen Howrah and Delhi, Railway Minister said in the Lok Sabha.

The movement of electrical goods parcels would now be cheaper, from April this year, by 46 per cent at Rs 162 per quintal between Secunderabad and Nizamuddin.

PTI