Kisan Rail
The Indian railways launched Kisan Rail services in the month of August 2020. Since then, these trains carried around 4,100 tonnes of goods from farmers to markets across India.
Indian Railways wants to ensure that small scale farmers who are unable to book the entire train are benefitted with Kisan Rail. The farmers can still avail these services by booking as little as they want.
The first Kisan Rail train service on the Indian Railways network was launched on 7 August 2020. The train runs between Devlali in Maharashtra and Danapur in the state of Bihar. Indian Railways is introducing another Kisan Rail train service.
Indian Railways flagged off India’s second and South India’s first Kisan Rail train service, from Anantapur in the state of Andhra Pradesh to Adarsh Nagar in Delhi. The inaugural run of the train started on 9 September 2020.
The Kisan Rail consists of 10 parcel vans as well as one luggage cum brake van and operates on a weekly basis.At present, the three Kisan Rail trains that are in operation are between Devlali-Danapur, Yashwantpur-Nizamuddin and Anantpur-Delhi.
These trains are running on 85% capacity.
In a bid to benefit small farmers, Indian Railways is considering linking Kisan Trains with seasonal fruits and vegetables. First seasonal Kisan train would likely be the Orange Special Kisan Train between Nagpur and Delhi and a Keenu Special Kisan Train from the state of Punjab to West Bengal and Odisha during the months of December and January.
The details are still being finalized on the basis of the feedback from various zones of Indian Railways about the viability of running dedicated train services linking them with seasonal produce.
