Kisan Rail

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.”

• India’s second and South India’s first Kisan Train commenced its inaugural run from Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh to Adarsh Nagar in New Delhi. Anantapur is fast becoming the Fruit Bowl of Andhra Pradesh.
• South India’s 1st Kisan Rail train service between Anantapur – New Delhi will cover a distance of 2150 kms in 40 hours.
• This train is a step towards realising the goal of doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022 (Ashok Dalwai committee on Doubling of Farmers’ Income.)

Kisan Rail – Major initiatives

• Refrigerated Parcel Vans: 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.
• Reefer (Ventilated Insulated) Rail Containers:  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.
• Cold Storage Facilities for Perishables:  ‘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).

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• Approval has been granted to Central Railside Warehousing Corporation (CRWC) to develop temperature controlled storages at Fatuha and Mancheswar.
• Cold storage facility has also been developed at Dadri. Fresh & Healthy Enterprise Ltd. (FHEL) has been redeveloped as Agriculture Logistic Center at Rai, Sonepat. This facility is CONCOR’s 100% own subsidiary developed in an area of 16.40 acres of land.
• The first service of the “multi-commodity” Kisan service was launched between Maharashtra’s Devlali and Danapur in Bihar and was later expanded to Muzaffarpur in the eastern state following a good response. 
• Also, it was made a weekly service instead of the initial thrice a week frequency. 
• Since its launch, the Kisan Rail service has transported 27,000 tonnes of agro-services. 
• The Centre has also extended a subsidy of 50% on the transportation of fruits and vegetables.
• The 100th ‘Kisan Rail’ will run between Sangola in Maharashtra and West Bengal’s Shalimar and, it will carry vegetables such as cauliflower, capsicum, cabbage, drumsticks, chillies, onions, and fruits like grapes, oranges, pomegranate, bananas, custard apples etc.