CORRECTION: The service flagged off today is the second and not the third Kisan Rail to be introduced. The error is regretted.
The second Kisan Rail service was flagged off between Anantapur and Delhi today by several ministers.
South India’s 1st Kisan Rail train service will cover a distance of 2,150 km in 40 hours. The rake is loaded with 14 parcel vans – 04 vans load meant for Nagpur and another 10 Vans load for Adarsh Nagar. The total produce loaded for the inaugural run was 332 tonnes.
One more Kisan Rail services has been started before this. The first was inaugurated between Devlali and Danapur. The train was later extended to Muzaffarpur. Frequency of the train was also increased.
This new service will run between Anantapur in Guntakal Division of South Central Railway and Adarsh Nagar in Delhi. Kisan Rail and Kisan Udaan had been announced in this year’s budget. Kisan Rail was planned as a service to provide priority to the transportation of perishable agricultural products to market places across the country.
The produce loaded was tomato, bananas, sweet orange, papaya, muskmelons and mangoes.
Anantapur is a key fruit growing region of Andhra Pradesh. More than 80% of the 58 lakh MT of fruits & vegetables in the district is marketed out of the state, particularly to the north Indian States of Delhi, UP, Punjab and Haryana. Most of this produce was transported by road.
The service was flagged off today through a video link by Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmer Welfare, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, and Shri Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
The programme was presided over by Shri Suresh C. Angadi, Union Minister of State for Railways.