I had used railways parcel service way back in 2004 once. My bike was loaded from Ratlam junction and was supposed to be taken down at Delhi. Instead, due to laxity or whatever you call it, it reached Dehradun. It stayed there for more than 10 days when I finally got in touch with a railway official in Ratlam with the help of a "Contact" who then managed to reach higher officials and parceled it back to Delhi.
2006, I had to parcel the bike back to my home. This time I went for a transport service. It reached in 3 days with just a side mirror out of place and a couple of small scratches.
2008, Transported my bike from Pune to Delhi. This time used Agarwal packers and movers. Bike delivered 4 days later with no damage.
If you are using IR, book it on a train that has Chennai as last stop. There are many other private transport options who would do that as well.