Need refrigerated train coaches to send kinnow to Bengaluru, Kolkata: Harsimrat

Bathinda: With kinnow growers in Punjab requiring transport to Karnataka, West Bengal and elsewhere to augment their earnings, Union food processing industry minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal has urged her counterpart for railways to start a ‘kisan rail’ for the citrus fruit with refrigerated bogies.

In a letter to railways minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday, Harsimrat stressed on the need to start ‘kisan rail’ from Abohar to Banglore and Kolkata during kinnow season.

This will be a boon for growers of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, besides improving export potential of kinnow to Bangladesh and south-east Asian countries.

“There is a need of kisan rail for kinnow growers in Malwa region of Punjab and adjoining areas of Haryana and Rajasthan, which have a net sown area of over 1 lakh hectares. Abohar town acts as a focal market for aggregation of kinnows and handles produce of over 25 LMT per annum. Owing to distinct taste, kinoow from Abohar has made a niche for itself in southern and eastern states. The cities of Banglore and Kolkata are biggest markets for Punjab’s kinnow and play a vital role in deciding the pricing of the fruit. Significant quantity is also exported to Bangladesh,” she wrote.

Due to highly perishable nature of the fruit only 35-40% of the harvest reaches consumers, she said. The rest get wasted in high temperatures in road transport over long distances causing loss to growers. In such circumstances there is a need for kisan rail with refrigerated bogies during kinnow harvest season between December and March, she added.