Kisan Rail to transport fruits, vegetables to New Delhi on Sept 9

Anantapur: Member of Parliament Talari Rangaiah's frantic efforts to organise a Kisan Rail to transport the agriculture and horticulture produce to New Delhi is paying dividends. If everything goes well, the Kisan Rail will be flagged off on September 9, according to Horticulture Deputy Director P Padmalatha.

Talking to The Hans India, Padmalatha revealed that the Kisan Rail has become a reality due to sincere efforts put in by the MP Rangaiah in response to farmers pleas for quite some time to organise the special freight train in the Covid context as farmers had been facing several bottlenecks in transporting and marketing their produce.

Marketing being a major problem being faced by the farmers has compounded their woes with transporting sector coming to a standstill throughout the country and even if there is some semblance of transportation, the cost is much higher than their produce cost and so the Kisan Rail proposal has come to the fore with horticulture farmers demanding the Railways to extend the facility.

Kisan Rail, being the first of its kind will transport 500 metric tonnes of fruits and vegetables to New Delhi on September 9.

The train goes a long way in helping farmers to earn remunerative price for their produce. Tomatoes also will be transported in huge quantity, horticulture sources say. Horticulture fruits include pomegranate, sweet oranges, bananas, guavas, papaya, figs, Sapotas and vegetables.