On August 7, 2020 Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Railways and Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare flagged off the India’s 1st Kisan Rail, a Special Parcel Train from Maharashtra’s Devlali to Bihar’s Danapur Railway station
through video link. This is the 1st ever multi commodity train of Indian Railways(IR) that carries fruits like Pomegranate, Banana, Grapes etc and vegetables like Capsicum, Cauliflower etc. The train will run on a weekly basis.
- The launch of Kisan Rail is a step towards achieving the target of doubling the income of farmers by 2022.
- The train is in pursuance of announcement made by Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman in Union Budget 2020-21
Benefits of Kisan Rail
i.Kisan Rail helps to transport agricultural produce, particularly perishable commodities, in a short period of time at cheaper rates.
ii.It aid farmers to proper market and price for their produce and help them to become Atma Nirbhar self-dependent and bring prosperity to their lives.
iii.The Kisan Rail train with frozen containers is expected to build a seamless national cold supply chain for perishables, inclusive of fish, meat and milk which will help farmers as freight of this train will be charged as per parcel tariff of normal train at ‘P’ Scale.
Role of MoA&FW
i.The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare(MoA&FW) will coordinate the first-mile arrangements including aggregation of consignments through FPOs, warehousing, setting-up of temperature-controlled storages, etc.
ii.It will provide details of Production Centres on the Kisan Special Routes along with seasonality of produce.
iii.It will ensure that information regarding Kisan Rail is publicized among all the stake-holders.
iv.For backward integration it will promote startups in agri-infrastructure, promotion of new FPOs and strengthening of existing FPOs
v.It will take action which is required to ensure availability of adequate back-end infrastructure.
Key Facts of Kisan Rail
Distance covered
The train will cover a distance of 1519 kilometres in around 32(31.45) hours on a single trip.
Halt
It will halt at Nashik Road, Manmad, Jalgaon, Bhusaval, Burhanpur, Khandwa, Itarsi, Jabalpur, Satna, Katni, Manikpur, Prayagraj Chheoki, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay junction and Buxar stations.
Chargeable rates
The chargeable rates(Freight per Tonne) for major pair of stations are as follows:
Nasik Road/Devlali to Danapur- Rs. 4001; Manmad to Danapur- Rs. 3849; Jalgaon to Danapur- Rs. 3513; Bhusawal to Danapur- Rs. 3459; Burhanpur to Danapur- Rs. 3323
Khandwa to Danapur- Rs. 3148.
Key people
Minister of state for railways Suresh Angadi, Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra assembly Devendra Fadanvis, Maharashtra Minister Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Chhagan Bhujbal among others attended the virtual ceremony.
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ii.The Drug Controller General of India(DCGI) has given approval to India’s first fully indigenously developed vaccine against pneumonia, Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine. The vaccine has been developed by M/s. Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd, Pune.
About Maharashtra:
Capital– Mumbai
Governor– Bhagat Singh Koshyari
Chief Minister– Uddhav Thackeray
