Kisan Rail Service For Carrying Perishable Farm Produce Begins Today

Kisan Rail Service: The Railways today began the Kisan Rail service to transport perishable items. In good news for farmers, this is the first train service, carrying vegetables and fruits, running between Devlali in Maharashtra and Danapur in Bihar, the Railways said. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced plans to start Kisan Rail, in her Budget, earlier.

Kisan Rail service: 5 key points

• It is aimed at seamless supply chain of perishable farm produce
• The trains with agricultural products will run on a weekly basis
• The scheduled halts will be at Nasik Road, Manmad, Jalgaon, Bhusaval, Burhanpur, Khandwa, Itarsi, Jabalpur, Satna, Katni, Manikpur, Prayagraj Chheoki, Deendayal Upadhyay Nagar and Buxar.
• It will primarily cover regions that produce huge quantities of vegetables, fruits, flowers and other perishable items.
• These perishables will mainly be transported to areas around Patna, Allahabad, Katni, Satna.

The Railways, in a statement said, "Aggressive marketing is being done with local farmers, loaders, Agricultural Produce Market Committee and individuals...," so that the farmers can make the best use of the Kisan Rail service.

The proposal to use refrigerated parcel vans to ferry perishables was first announced by Mamata Banerjee in the 2009-10, when she was the union rail minister. However, it did not take off.

Since then, the Railways has commissioned temperature-controlled perishable cargo centres at Ghazipur Ghat in Uttar Pradesh, New Azadpur in Delhi and a few other places. A pilot project, under the Kisan Vision Project by Container Corporation of India Limited through a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiative, is underway. Another project is under construction at Lasalgaon, the main onion market, in Maharashtra's Nasik.