Tirupati: Kisan Rail transports 42 tonne tomatoes to Nagpur

Tirupati: With the success of previous two Kisan Rails from Anantapur to New Delhi and intensive marketing efforts of Guntakal division of South Central Railway (SCR), the farmers and traders from the Chittoor district availed the facility for transporting tomatoes in the third trip.

A total of 242.6 tonne commodities have been transported by the third trip of Kisan Rail which left Anantapur station on Wednesday. Chittoor farmers and traders have sent about 42 tonne tomatoes produced in the district. They expressed their interest in transporting the produce to the north India to the district collector Dr N Bharat Gupta recently.

On the request of the district collector, the railway officials swiftly responded and made necessary arrangements, including notifying Mulakalacheruvu station for parcel loading on Tuesday. Tomatoes were transported to Nagpur in Maharashtra in two parcel vans. Thamballapalle MLA P Dwarakanath Reddy flagged off these parcel vans.

SCR general manager Gajanan Mallya said that opening of loading point at Mulakalacheruvu will benefit the farmers cultivating in and around the villages surrounding the station. It may be recalled that the Kisan Rail concept was introduced to boost the income of farmers.

To further encourage the farmers to utilise the facility, the ministry of food processing industries has recently announced extending 50 per cent tariff concession on the transportation of notified fruits and vegetables through Kisan Rail under 'Operation Greens–TOP to Total'. Accordingly, the tomato farmers in the district have got 50 per cent tariff concession.