Maligaon, June 6: Despite the challenges of Covid-19 pandemic, Indian Railways is working continuously towards boosting farmers’ income by facilitating access to larger markets for their produce. In order to connect farmers and markets across the country, Railways have continued transportation of perishable agricultural products by running Kisan Rail trains.
Business Development Units (BDU)have been set up at all Divisions and Zonal Head Quarters over Indian railways to look for new streams of traffic, collaborate with different State and Central Authorities, traders, farmers and manufacturers and producers and provide them with transportation and logistics solutions as per their requirement.
In such an initiative, the Business Development Unit (BDU) of Lumding Division contacted the authorities of Tripura State Horticulture Department, traders & farmers of Agartala area and suggested the services of Kisan rail for transportation of jackfruits, pineapples, lemons and other agri-products of Tripura to larger markets in different parts of the country and abroad too.
The efforts of BDU of Lumding Division have resulted in introduction of Kisan rails from Agartala to Delhi and Chitpur (Kolkata) from the month of June, 2021. Meanwhile, NFR has already transported jackfruits of Tripura by train from Agartala to Guwahati for further shipment to United Kingdom by airways.
Among the Kisan Rails, the Train No. 00591 Agartala- Adarsh Nagar (Delhi) Kisan Rail will run on 11th and 25th June; 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th July, 2021 leaving from Agartala at 13-00 hours on Friday to reach Adarsh Nagar, Delhi at 13-45 hours on Sunday.
The train will have stoppages at Ambassa, Kumarghat, Dharmanagar, New Karimganj, Badarpur, Lumding, Guwahati and Prayagraj Junction for loading and unloading of goods.
Another Train No. 00590 Agartala- Chitpur Kisan Rail will run on 16th and 30th June; 7th, 14th , 21st and 28th July, 2021 leaving from Agartala at 13-00 hours on Wednesday to reach Chitpur at 22-00 hours on Thursday. The train will have stoppages at Ambassa, Kumarghat, Dharmanagar, New Karimganj, Badarpur, Lumding, Guwahati and New Jalpaiguri for loading and unloading of goods.
It may be mentioned here that Indian Railways has started running Kisan Rail train services, to transport perishables and agri-product, including milk, meat and fish etc. A subsidy of 50% is being granted on the transportation of fruits and vegetables via Kisan Rail. The primary objective of running Kisan Rail trains is to increase the income in farm sector by connecting production centres to markets and consumption centres.
