Nagpur, October 14
“Farmers income will double due to the start of Santra Kisan Rail, as now the farmers produce will go to length and breadth of the country and will also help them better infrastructure,” said union Minister for Surface Transport and MSMEs Nitin Gadkari, during the flagging-off Santra Kisan Rail online.
Gadkari further said that this will also help to curtail farmer suicides to some extent. Guardian minister Nitin Raut, MP Ramdas Tadas, Dr Vikas Mahatme, MP Krupal Tumane, MLA Vikas Thakre and mayor Sandeep Joshi were also present.
The train which was launched today will go to Aadarsh Nagar, New Delhi and on the way will stop at orange growing districts such as Katol, Narkhed. The first Kisan Rail for farmers was started from Danapur. Gadkari also launched the Santra Kisan Rail website in this function. During the function he said that more money is spent on transportation through road network and train transport will save on cost. The Ministry of Food Processing has given a discount of 50 per cent on goods transported through Santra Kisan Rail on the request of Gadkari. Due to this the farmers will be able to send their produce such as oranges, sweet-lime, lemon and other agriculture produce with minimum expenditure to Delhi, Amritsar and they will have a larger market.
Gadkari has also suggested JNPT to provide cold storage facilities for vegetables at the container depot, so that vegetables from Nagpur and Vidarbha can be exported and they will remain fresh. He has also asked assistance from the railways to transport vegetables from Wardha to JNPT. He informed that a dry port is being built in Sindhi in Vidarbha and Jalna and said that now import, export can directly happen from Sindhi port in Vidarbha. Central railways general manager Sanjeev Mittal, divisional railway manager Somesh Kumar and other senior officials were also present online.