Railway Minister broadcasts parcel prepare to move apples from Kashmir to Delhi

In a bid to alleviate the struggles of apple growers in Kashmir, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday introduced the launch of a day by day parcel prepare service between Budgam within the Valley and Adarsh Nagar in Delhi.

The transfer comes as a reduction to orchardists in south Kashmir, the place lots of of vehicles laden with apple produce price ₹200 crore are stranded because of the closure of the Srinagar-Jammu nationwide freeway for the previous 13 days following landslips triggered by heavy rains. Many vehicles needed to unload rotten apples in orchards and on highways.

“Empowering Kashmir’s apple growers. With the Jammu-Srinagar line operational, the Kashmir Valley has higher connectivity. Railways is introducing a day by day time-tabled parcel prepare from Budgam in Kashmir Valley to Adarsh Nagar station in Delhi beginning September 13, 2025,” Mr. Vaishnaw mentioned on X.

Two parcel vans carrying apples from Budgam to Delhi have been loaded on Thursday. “Each van will carry 23 metric tonnes of apples,” an official mentioned.

The prepare will depart from the Budgam station at 6.15 a.m. on Saturday and attain Adarsh Nagar station at 5 a.m. the subsequent day, “which is an appropriate time for apples to reach on the Delhi market early within the morning”, an official mentioned.

Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant-Governor Manoj Sinha and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah expressed gratitude to the Railway Ministry for launching the service.

“My heartfelt gratitude to the Railway Minister for the assist in making this initiative doable. We have been in contact with one another to deal with the difficulty. The frequent closure of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, broken by current heavy rains, has left Kashmir’s apple trade reeling on the peak of the harvest season. Growers have been unable to move their produce to markets outdoors the Valley, leading to mounting losses,” Mr. Abdullah mentioned.

Orchardists hail transfer

An official mentioned the Railways is able to run extra such trains if there may be additional demand. Orchardists and apple sellers within the Valley welcomed the step and underlined the necessity to press for extra such prepare companies to salvage the horticulture sector.

“Thousands of vehicles bought caught previously two weeks. The losses are estimated to be round ₹100-₹200 crore. The downside is that we’ve got seen such unhealthy climate after so a few years. The highway was utterly positive, however out of the blue earlier than the season, this catastrophe hits. Now, this has occurred at a really essential time, which is the start of the season. The status of the Kashmir apple is at stake when the primary heaps are of unhealthy high quality,” Izhan Javed, an apple seller and spokesperson of J&Okay Fruits and Vegetables Processing and Integrated Cold Chain Association, instructed The Hindu.

“I concern it’s going to have an effect on the entire season as the angle of Kashmir apple high quality is ready amongst patrons and impacts the pricing for the entire season. If the issue persists, we’re losses in hundreds of crores. There are quite a lot of fruit-laden vehicles that want precedence passage. While the beginning of a parcel prepare is a welcome step, extra must be executed as two parcels can’t accommodate greater than 40 tons of fruit. We want two to a few full cargo trains each day for at the very least 10-15 days to alleviate the stress,” Mr. Javed mentioned.

J&Okay’s apple manufacturing stood at 20.40 lakh metric tons in 2023-24 and contributed over 70% of the full produce of the nation.