Special apple train to tide over Kashmir Valley growers’ woes

In the midst of apple growers in Kashmir bearing the brunt of the closure of the Srinagar-Jammu highway this month, the Railways on Thursday said it was introducing a daily parcel train between Kashmir and Delhi, beginning September 13.

Railway officials said the “proactive action” had been taken to help Valley fruit growers send their produce to major markets in Delhi.

Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on X it would “empower Kashmir’s apple growers.”

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said it took about a week of close coordination between Railway Ministry officials and his office “to get to the point where our harvested fruit is now being transported by train.”

“With the national highway continuing to give us trouble, this has come as a great relief for growers whose produce ran the risk of getting spoilt as it wasn’t reaching the market,” he said. According to the Railways, it has issued a notification for eight vehicle parcel trains that will originate at the Budgam railway station in Central Kashmir at 6.15 am and reach the Adarsh Nagar railway station in Delhi at 5 am the next day.

The starting of the trains for apples has come at a time when the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway — the key route connecting the Valley with the rest of the country, remained shut for days this month following heavy rain. With the peak apple harvest season underway, growers have pegged the losses to the apple industry between Rs 500 crore and Rs 700 crore.

Daily service to start tomorrow

Though the daily parcel train service will start on Saturday, for the first time, two parcel coaches carrying apples departed from the Valley on Thursday — one for Jammu and the other for Delhi, said Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay, chief public relations officer of the Northern Railway.

“It is a welcome step, a good beginning. It will definitely help apple growers in the Valley,” Bashir Ahmed, chairman of the Kashmir Valley Fruit Growers-cum-Dealers Union, told The Tribune. He said in the coming days, the Railways should extend the services to different parts of the country.

The Awami Itehaad Party of jailed Lok Sabha MP Engineer Rashid on Thursday asked the Railway Ministry to extend the service up to Baramulla where the Sopore fruit mandi — Asia’s second-largest fruit market — is located so that growers could get the shortest access to the facility.

The announcement of the parcel train comes following the first freight train, carrying 21 wagons of cement, successfully reaching the Anantnag goods shed in the Valley from Punjab last month.

After the Katra-Srinagar rail link was inaugurated by the Prime Minister in June this year, the Railways is operating Vande Bharat Express trains from Katra to Srinagar, which has received a massive response. Apart from the demand to introduce direct trains from the Valley to different parts of the country, the goods train service is also being demanded, especially for the Valley’s horticulture sector.