Railways Emerge as Lifeline: 25,000 MT of Kashmir Apples Transported by Trains Last Season
Freight and Ro-Ro services offer a dependable, cost-effective alternative to frequent highway blockades, ensuring rapid access to mandis across India.
SRINAGAR: In what marks a transformative turning point for the Union Territory’s premier agri-economy, the Indian Railways has firmly emerged as a reliable logistics lifeline for Kashmir’s apple growers. Nearly 25,000 metric tonnes (MT) of apples were successfully ferried from the Valley to terminal markets nationwide during the last harvesting season.
Confirming the figures, Director of Horticulture Planning and Marketing, Ghulam Jeelani Zargar, termed the operationalization and expansion of railway connectivity between Kashmir and the rest of the country a historic breakthrough for regional horticulture.
“The establishment of rail connectivity between Kashmir and different parts of the country marks a significant milestone for the horticulture sector and offers a promising, cost-effective option for moving produce, particularly during the peak apple harvest.”
Zargar underscored the imperative to rapidly scale up both dedicated goods wagon freight and Roll-on/Roll-off (Ro-Ro) transport modules, enabling apple-laden trucks to board train wagons directly, substantially shrinking transit intervals and preserving perishable quality.
High-Level Stakeholder Consultation at Rajbagh
The Director made these observations while presiding over an extensive stakeholder deliberation organized by the Directorate of Horticulture Planning and Marketing at Rajbagh, Srinagar.
- Streamlined Freight Corridors: Harmonizing train parcel schedules to coincide with peak crop arrivals across major mandis like Sopore, Shopian, and Parimpora.
- Promoting Ro-Ro Services: Enabling seamless intermodal carriage from orchards straight to suburban retail hubs without multiple manual handling stages.
- Protecting Farmer Margins: Slashing transit losses and bringing down freight overheads compared to traditional long-distance road carriage.
Overcoming the Srinagar-Jammu Highway Bottleneck
The deliberate pivot toward railway freight addresses a longstanding structural vulnerability that has troubled Kashmir’s ₹10,000-crore apple sector for decades.
During the harvest window from September to November, the 270-km Srinagar-Jammu National Highway (NH-44) routinely encounters crippling congestion, shooting stones in the Ramban sector, mudslides, and adverse weather shutdowns. Stranded trucks lead to fruit spoilage, distressed farmgate sales, and erratic supply lines across wholesale markets in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.
With regular railway services stepping in, stakeholders believe Kashmir’s horticultural economy is positioned to unlock unprecedented market reach, insulation from highway halts, and consistent returns for cultivators across the Valley.
