Indian Railways to run country's first Kisan Special Parcel Train between Maharashtra-Bihar on August 7

New Delhi: Indian Railways will run country's first Kisan Special Parcel Train between Maharashtra's Devlali and Bihar's Danapur on August 7.

The train for Devlali will start at 11 am on August and will reach Danapur the next day at 6.45 pm, covering a distance of 1519 kilometres in about 32 hours. The train will make stoppages at different stations carrying vegetables, fruits etc. It is not meant for carrying regular passengers. The parcel trains will have a composition of 10 +1 coaches.

The train will cover the routes viz, Devlali - Nasik Road, Manmad, Jalgaon, Bhusaval, Burhanpur, Khandwa, ltarsi, Jabalpur, Satna,Katni, Manikpur, Prayagraj Chheoki, Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay Nagar and Buxar. Devlali falls under Maharashtra's Bhusawal division adjoining Nashik which is know for its vegetables, fruits and flowers which are being sent to the entire North Indian region covering Patna, Pryagraj and Katni.

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar will flag off the parcel train via video conferencing. 

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Union Budget 2020-21 had mentioned the Kisan Rail project.

The government had proposed that to build a  seamless  national  cold  supply  chain  for  perishables, inclusive of milk, meat and fish, the Indian Railways will set up a Kisan Rail - through PPP  arrangements. There shall be refrigerated coaches in Express and Freight trains as well.

The Indian Railways had earlier announced that it has taken major initiatives regarding Development of Cold Chain for Transportation of Perishable Traffic.

New design of Refrigerated Parcel Vans (VPR, carrying capacity of 17 tonnes) for transportation of highly perishable parcel traffic was developed, and procured through Rail Coach Factory Kapurthala. At present, Indian Railway has a fleet of nine (09) Refrigerated    Parcel Vans available. These Refrigerated Parcel Vans are booked on round-trip basis, and are charged at 1.5 times the freight of normal VP as per category of train.

98 Ventilated Insulated Containers (Carrying capacity 12 Tonnes per container, rake composition 80 containers)  have been procured, through CONCOR, for movement of fruits and vegetables to different parts of the country.

‘Temperature controlled perishable cargo centres’ have been commissioned at Ghazipur Ghat (U.P), New Azadpur (Adarsh Nagar, Delhi) and Raja ka Talab (U.P) as a pilot project under Kisan Vision Project by CONCOR under CSR initiative. Another    project is under construction at Lasalgaon, Nasik (Maharashtra).