NEW DELHI: The Centre has formed a panel, comprising representatives from the railways and departments of the agriculture ministry, to look into the implementation of the Kisan Rail scheme.
According to the railways, the committee will monitor the creation of cold storage supply chain for perishable goods by operating freight and express trains with refrigerated coaches. Railway minister Piyush Goyal said that solar panels would be set up on non-utilised railway land to aid these coaches.
The Kisan Rail scheme was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Union Budget announced. The scheme calls for setting up a chain to transport highly perishable goods like meat, milk and fish through the public private partnership method. In accordance to the scheme, temperature-controlled centres have been set up in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Maharashtra under Kisan Vision project of the Container Corporation of India.