As onion prices soared ahead of the festive season, the Centre on Sunday transported 1,600 tonnes of buffer stock of the vegetable using a "Kanda express" train from Maharashtra to Delhi. The special rake, equivalent to 56 trucks, departed from Maharashtra's Lasalgaon Railway Station in Nashik and reached Delhi's Kishanganj Railway Station.
The stocks will be released in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), where onion prices have increased to Rs 75 per kg in recent weeks.
"This rail transport initiative marks a historic first," Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare said last week, adding that similar arrangements will be extended to Lucknow, Varanasi and northeastern states including Assam, Nagaland and Manipur.
She had said the move was a cost-effective and efficient measure as transporting one rake from Nashik to Delhi costs Rs 70.20 lakh by rail, compared to Rs 84 lakh by road.
The government had procured 4.7 lakh tons of rabi onion for the price stabilization buffer this year and started the release from September 5 through retail sale at Rs 35 per kg.
According to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, the average retail prices in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Jharkhand and Telangana have come down in recent days in comparison to the level in the first week of September.
"Mandi prices in Lasalgaon also declined from the peak of Rs 47 per kg on September 24 to Rs 40 kg on October 15," the Ministry said last week.
Speaking about tomatoes, the government said the recent surge in prices is because of "excess rains and high moisture level" in major tomato-producing areas of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
"The adverse weather conditions together with incidences of disease attack in certain pockets impacted the harvest and also the shelf life of tomatoes. The supply situation is set to improve in the coming days with increased arrivals from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh which would bring down the tomato prices," the government said.
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