The South Central Railway (SCR) successfully ran more than 500 Kisan Rails from different railway stations covering the three States of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra -- moving more than 1.6 lakh tonnes of agricultural products across the country till date.
General Manager Gajanan Mallya on Sunday informed that most of the commodities have been moved to the eastern, northern and north-eastern States.
He said that the Kisan Rail concept was announced in the Union Budget last year to double the income of agricultural community where safe, secure and fast mode of transportation with least enroute damages to the agricultural products is ensured with 50% concession in freight charges. First Kisan Rail in SCR and also the first from south India was flagged off on September 9 last year from Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh while Telangana’s first Kisan Rail was on February 8 from Warangal and from Nagarsol in Maharashtra on January 5. Varieties of vegetables and fruits transported has been giving major support for the agricultural farmers/traders to market their produce especially during the pandemic time of COVID-19. In total, 359 Kisan Rails have been transported from Maharashtra, 78 from Andhra Pradesh and 63 Kisan Rails from Telangana. Mr. Mallya expressed satisfaction on Kisan Rail concept being huge success across the zone, complimented the teams involved and called upon the officials concerned to extend all possible assistance to farmers and traders in transporting their products, a press release said.
