Railways to start first 'Kisan Rail' from Devlali to Danapur on Friday

The Indian Railways is set to introduce the first “Kisan Rail” from Devlali to Danapur on Friday. This is part of an ambitious plan to build a seamless national cold supply chain for perishables, inclusive of milk, meat, and fish, announced in the Union Budget 2020-21.  

"As announced in the current year’s Union Budget by the finance minister, Indian Railways is introducing first “Kisan Rail” from Devlali to Danapur," the railways said in a statement. The train will be flagged off via video conferencing by Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Rural Development and Panchyati Raj, Narendra Singh Tomar and Minister of Railways and Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal. The train will run on a weekly basis. It will start from Devlali at 11 am and will reach Danapur by around 6.45 pm on Saturday, covering a distance of 1,519 km in around 32 hours.

The train will provide a seamless supply chain of perishable produce. This train is a step towards realising the goal of doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022. "Indian Railways aims to help double farmers’ income with the launch of Kisan Rail. This train will help in bringing perishable agricultural products like vegetables, fruits to the market in a short period of time. The train with frozen containers is expected to build a seamless national cold supply chain for perishables, inclusive of fish, meat and milk," the statement said.

Central Railway's Bhusawal division is primarily an agro-based division. Nasik and the surrounding regions produce a huge quantity of fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers, other perishables, onions and other agro products. These perishables are mainly transported to areas around Patna, Prayagraj, Katni and Satna. This train has been provided scheduled halts at Nasik Road, Manmad, Jalgaon, Bhusaval, Burhanpur, Khandwa, Itarsi, Jabalpur, Satna, Katni, Manikpur, Prayagraj Chheoki, Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay Nagar and Buxar.

Indian Railways have earlier run single commodity special trains like Banana Specials. However, this will be the first-ever multi-commodity train and will carry fruits like pomegranate, banana, grapes etc and vegetables like capsicum, cauliflower, drumsticks, cabbage, onion and chillies. "Aggressive marketing is being done with local farmers, loaders, APMC and individuals. Demand is being aggregated. It is expected that the train will be patronised well and will be a great help to farmers, as the freight of this train will be charged in line with the parcel tariff of the normal train," it said.