Railways parcel trains brings king of fruits to North India

People of North India did not miss the opportunity to savour of the king of fruits- mangoes during lockdown period as railways able to transport large quantities of fruits from southern states including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

In April, North India gets mangoes from southern states due to early harvest in that region. This year due to lockdown many traders struggled to get fruits as it generally transported through trucks. However, railways special parcel trains came as a relief to both farmers and dealers in transporting fruits.

Konkon Railway' special parcel trains from Thiruvananthapuram to Okha in Gujarat, helped farmers to send Alphonso mangos grown in Maharashtra while parcel train operated by Waltair Division of East Coast Railways (ECoR) from Vizianagaram to Delhi came as handy to transport mangos grown in Andhra Pradesh.

Besides mangoes, this time, other fruits like bananas, grapes, oranges, pomegranates also transported using parcel trains to Adarsha Nagar and Azadpur wholesale markets in New Delhi.

Large quantities of bananas were also transported from Bhusaval in Maharashtra to Delhi while oranges from Nagpur transported to Odisha and West Bengal.

Nagpur division in Central Railways transported 400 quintals of oranges to Rourkela in Odisha and Tata Nagar in Jharkhand for the past few days, says railway officials.

"Orange take the train. People across the country now savour their favour Nagpuri oranges as 400 quintals have been dispatched in trains," Railway Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted.

Since railways stopped passengers trains due to lockdown, it operates only freight trains to transport essential commodities. The national transporter also operating over 500 parcel trains including 55 Annapurna trains to transport rice, wheat and pulses to be distributed poorly under public distribution system and 8 Jai Kisan trains to transport perishable items like fruits and vegetables.