Central Railway has dispatched 61,978 Tonnes of parcels during the nationwide lockdown and phased unlock period till 10.9.2020. These parcels include essential commodities like perishables, medicines, pharma products, food items and other hard parcels.
To contain the spread of Covid-19 pandemic in India all passenger train services were suspended from 23.3.2020. However, freight and parcel trains are running to maintain this supply chain of essential commodities across the country in addition to graded restoration of special trains.
- Railways started time-tabled parcel express trains for quick and timely transport of essential commodities and to maintain the supply chain.
- Central Railway has operated in all 465 parcel trains till 10.9.2020 carrying 38,618 Tonnes of essential commodities including perishables, pharma products/medicines, E-commerce products and other hard parcels.
- Further it is decided to run these parcel express trains upto 31.12.2020.
- Subsequent to restoration of few special trains with effect from 1.6.2020, Central Railway dispatched 19,290 Tonnes of parcels in these special trains till 10.9.2020.
- The Ministry of Railways started India’s first ever Kisan Rail on Central railway from 7.8.2020 between Devlali and Danapur in Bihar as a weekly train to help out farmers in the region to send their Agri produce upto far distant areas of the country quickly and economically.
- This initiative has got immense response from farmers and hence the train extended further upto Muzaffarpur and attaching Kisan link rail at Manmad from Sangola/Pune.
- Kisan Rail is now running as tri-weekly from 8.9.2020.
- Till now Kisan Rail completed 10 trips carrying more than 2,200 Tonnes of perishable commodities like Pomegranates (Anar), Capsicum, Green Chilli, Ginger, Lemon and Ice-fish etc.
- During this Covid-19 pandemic Central Railway dispatched in all 61,978 Tonnes of parcels including 38,618 tonnes in parcel trains; 19,290 tonnes in parcel vans of special trains; Milk tanker 1,804 tonnes and 2,266 tonnes in Kisan Rail.
More About Kisan Rail:
- The inaugural run of the country’s first ‘Devlali-Danapur Kisan Rail’ was flagged off on 07 Aug 2020 through a Video Conference in the presence of Union Minister of Railways, Commerce & Industry Shri Piyush Goyal.
- In the Union Budget 2020-21, Union Minister of Finance Smt Nirmala Sitharaman had made an announcement to build a seamless national cold supply chain for perishables, inclusive of milk, meat and fish and it was also stated that the Indian Railways will set up a Kisan Rail through PPP arrangements.
- Kisan Rail shall be trains with multi commodities, multi-consignors and multi consignees.
- These trains shall run between fixed Origin–Destination pairs with en-route stoppages, and loading/ unloading shall be permitted at any of the en-route stoppage.
- The Origin–Destination pairs, routes, stoppages, and frequency of the train shall be decided jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare and Ministry of Railways.
- Indian Railways will plan to run the trains accordingly.
Second Kisan Rail flagged off:
South India’s First and country’s second “Kisan Rail” was flagged off from Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh) to Adarsh Nagar (New Delhi) on 9th September, 2020.
- The newly introduced Kisan Rail starts from Anantapur Railway Station in Andhra Pradesh and reaches Adarsh Nagar Station, New Delhi.
- The inaugural Kisan Rail loaded with Tomato, Bananas, Sweet Orange, Papaya, Muskmelons and Mangoes.
- The train provides fast transport connectivity between Anantapur to New Delhi with the distance of 2150 Km being covered in approximately 40 hours.
- Anantapur is fast becoming the Fruit Bowl of Andhra Pradesh. More than 80% of the 58 lakh MT of fruits & vegetables in the district is marketed out of the state, particularly to the north Indian States of Delhi, UP, Punjab and Haryana among others.
- Earlier this was being transported by roadways which was not only time taking but also leading to reduction in price realisation of the farmers due to enroute damages. Transportation by railway provides a safe, reliable and fast transportation which will aid in better price realisation for the farmers and thereby helping in better incomes for the farmers and traders.
- The Railway team at Guntakal (particularly the newly set up Business Development Unit) along with the cooperation of the District Administration and State Government Officials have played a crucial role in making the farmers/traders aware of the benefits in loading by railways, which led to today’s inaugural rail.
Source: Central Railway-Press Release | Image Credit: Central Railway
