Announced in Budget 2020, Kisan Rail to begin services from Friday

The first Kisan Special Parcel Train, carrying fruits and vegetables between Maharashtra- Bihar, will start its operation on Friday.

The first Kisan Rail will start from Devlali near Nasik to Danapur near Patna on August 7 at 11 am on a weekly basis. The train will reach Danapur at 6.45 pm on the next day, covering 1,519 km in 31.45 hours, an official statement said.

The same train will return from Danapur at noon on Sunday and reach Devlali at 7.45 am on Monday. The parcel trains will have a composition of 10+1 coaches.

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar will flag off the train via video coference.

There will be at least 14 stoppages on this route, from Nasik Road to Bhusawal to Jabalpur and Buksar. The Railways is also open to increasing the number of stoppages upon farmer demand, said an official in the railways.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced this initiative in her Budget speech earlier this year envisaging setting up of a 'Kisan Rail' through the public-private-partnership (PPP) mode for a cold supply chain to transport perishable goods.

Though the proposal to use refrigerated parcel vans to ferry perishables was first announced by then railway minister Mamata Banerjee in the 2009-10 Budget, it failed to take off.

This special parcel train will be run by the Bhusaval division of Central Railways. Bhusawal Division is primarily an agro-based division and Nasik and the surrounding region produces huge quantities of fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers, other perishables, onions and other agro products.

These perishables are mainly transported to areas around Patna, Allahabad, Katni, Satna and others.

"Aggressive marketing is being done with local farmers, loaders, APMC and individuals," the statement said.

The railways so far commissioned temperature-controlled perishable cargo centres at Ghazipur Ghat (UP), New Azadpur (Adarsh Nagar, Delhi) and Raja ka Talab (UP) as a pilot project under the Kisan Vision Project by Container Corporation of India Limited (CONCOR) through a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiative. Another project is under process at Lasalgaon in Maharashtra's Nasik.