The first ‘Kisan Rail’ from south India and second in the country, carrying 322 tonnes of fresh fruits, reached Delhi’s Adarsh Nagar Railway Station on September 11.

The inaugural run of Anantapur–New Delhi Kisan Rail was flagged off by Union Minister for Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on September 9. 

On August 7, the first Kisan Rail in the country was flagged off between Devlali in Maharashtra and Danapur in Bihar as a weekly service, which was later made bi-weekly due to increasing demand.

Features of Kisan Rail

Kisan Rail and Krishi Udaan had been announced in this year’s Budget, so that farm produce is able to be transported all over the country in less time.

In her Budget speech, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Indian Railways will set up a Kisan Rail through the public-private partnership (PPP) mode with refrigerated coaches for transportation of perishable goods to assist farmers.

Indian Railways have earlier run single commodity special trains like Banana Specials. But these are multi commodity trains. These trains shall run between fixed origin–destination pairs with en route stoppages. The origin–destination pairs, routes, stoppages and frequency of the train is decided jointly by the ministry of agriculture & farmers’ welfare and the ministry of railways.

Kisan Rail will benefit the small farmers and traders in marketing their product across the country in a safe, economical and speedy manner. It caters to the requirements of small farmers and traders for transportation of their perishable produces such as fruits and vegetables. It takes less time and cost in comparison to road transport ensuring less damage to the farm produce while transportation.

The arrangements including aggregation of consignments through farmer producer organisations (FPO), warehousing, setting-up of temperature-controlled storages, etc shall be coordinated by the agriculture ministry.

It will also promote startups in agri-infrastructure, promotion of new FPOs and strengthening of existing FPOs.

To help improve value realisation especially in northeast and tribal districts, Krishi Udaan will be launched by the ministry of civil aviation.

Significance of Anantapur–New Delhi Kisan Rail

Noting that horticulture was an important activity in the state, CM Jagan Mohan Reddy said the state ranks first in the country in the production of tomato, coconut, papaya and chillies and is the biggest fruit producing state in south India.

The cropped area under horticulture in Anantapur district is 2.02 lakh hectares, yielding an output of 58.39 lakh tonnes per annum of various fruits and vegetables.

While consumption of fruits and vegetables within the state is only around six lakh tonnes, the rest is marketed across the country, particularly to Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. Earlier, this was transported by road.

The Kisan Rail is planned to be run once a week now, but as harvesting picks up after October, the frequency may be increased from January based on the demand.

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