Sharp at 5 pm on Thursday, 42 wagon-loads of onions rolled out of Nashik’s main station in a special train, aptly titled ‘Kanda (onion) Express’, for delivery at Delhi subzi-mandis where the kitchen essential is ruling at ₹60-70 per kg in the festive season.
This is the Consumer Affairs Ministry’s latest move to combat the ever-escalating prices of essential vegetables, specifically onions. In what the Department Secretary Nidhi Khare described as a “historic first”, the Railways have been roped in for bulk transportation of the vegetable from the producing regions to the major consuming cities so that the prevailing market prices are kept under control before Diwali.
The carrying capacity of 42 wagons of Kanda Excpress is equivalent to 53 truckloads. It is carrying 1,600 tonnes of onion, which is nearly half of the quantity received in different mandis in Delhi in a day. Bulk transport through Railways is both cost-effective and efficient mode as transporting in one rake (equivalent to 53 trucks) from Nashik to Delhi costs about ₹70 lakh by rail, compared with ₹84 lakh by road, a saving of ₹14 lakh per rake.
Historic move
“This rail transport initiative marks a historic first,” said Nidhi Khare, adding that similar arrangements have been planned for transporting onions to Lucknow, Varanasi and northeastern States such as Assam, Nagaland and Manipur where prices are high. The Consumer Affairs Ministry is also in discussion with Concor for onion movement through sealed containers as it will help minimise transit loss.
For Delhi, the government will simultaneously continue to sell onion directly to retail consumers at ₹35/kg through the cooperatives and other agencies whereas onion in bulk will be sold in mandis at the market rates.
“The main objective is to increase the supply and bring prices down,” an official said.
The government has also been discussing with e-commerce platforms for ₹35/kg sale programme and the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has agreed to start direct selling, officials said.
Khare said though the average purchase price (as paid to farmers) of onion for the current buffer stock of 4.7 lakh tonnes (lt), so far, is about ₹28/kg, the government is not selling at a profit since other costs (like transport, loading-unloading, handling) are also involved. She said there is no subsidy from the Price Stabilisation Fund scheme for the current onion sales. The retail sales of tomato at ₹65/kg will continue until market rates come down to that level. Tomato is selling at ₹100 per kg in the market.
The government has been selling onions from the buffer stock at discounted rates since September 5 through various channels including mobile vans, outlets of NCCF, NAFED, Kendriya Bhandar and Mother Dairy’s Safal. The Consumer Affairs Secretary said the number of mobile vans will be increased from current 600 to 1,000 very soon to further strengthen retail intervention ahead of Diwali.
She said out of the buffer stock, the Centre has allocated 91,960 tonnes to NCCF (53,722 tonnes) and NAFED (38,238 tonnes) and 86,000 tonnes have been dispatched to various states including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur.