In an effort to increase income of the farm sector by connecting production centres to markets, the North East Frontier Railway (NFR) will be running Kisan special trains from Agartala to Howrah and Sealdah from Thursday (11 February), reports Hindustan Times.

Running once a week, the Kisan special train will leave from Agartala at 1915 hours on Thursday and will reach Sealdah on Saturday.

“The railways has started running these Kisan special train services to transport perishables and agricultural products, including milk, meat and fish. This multi-commodity, multi-consignor/consignee, multi-loading/unloading transportation product is aimed at providing a wider market to our Kisans,” the statement issued by Subhanan Chanda, chief PRO of NFR said.

The train between from Agartala to Howrah and Sealdah will have stoppages at Dharmanagar, Badarpur, Lumding, Guwahati, Kamakhya, Goalpara, New Bongaigaon, New Alipurduar, New Coochbehar, New Jalpaiguri, Malda Town, Khaltipur, Bardhaman and Bandel for loading and unloading.

With the aim to help double the farmers' income, the Kisan Rail services started in August last year have transported over 49,000 tons of agricultural products with 157 services till 22 January 2021.

These trains are carrying vegetables, fish, meat, milk, food grains and fruits to the market in a short period of time.

Building a seamless national cold supply chain for perishable goods, the first such train service was launched between Devlali in Maharashtra and Danapur in Bihar in August, 2020. Till now, total 157 services have been operationalized on 18 routes across the country.