Rail mode to transport rubber saplings, perishables gaining traction

The trend caught up when pandemic hampered ferrying of vegetables, fruits, and other produce by road

Rubber saplings and other produce from Kerala are increasingly being shipped in trains to north-eastern States and other far-flung locales, faced with the prospect of perishable and other commodities suffering damage during road transit and transshipment en route.

The trend caught up when the pandemic hampered ferrying of vegetables, fruits, and other produce by road. This in turn helped create awareness about the manifold advantages of their transit by trains, including the economy of transport, and the much-lower carbon footprint.

Foremost among the items to adopt the rail route since 2021 were saplings and budded stumps of rubber, which were ferried in trains from Thiruvalla in Kerala to Assam in ‘Bharatapuzha-Brahmaputra Rubber Express’ rakes. There was no looking back since then. A joint initiative of Railways and the Rubber Board, nine rakes (trains), each carrying 1.50 rubber saplings, have already been shipped to Assam from Thiruvalla this year.

The Executive Director of Rubber Board K.N. Raghavan spoke of how the demand for one crore rubber saplings in Assam further helped rejuvenate their nurseries in Kerala that were in a dormant condition. “It also helped revive the planting and replanting drive in the northeast that too was in a dormant condition. The first consignment was sent in 2021 in a general (unreserved) coach, following which dedicated rakes were relied on,” he said.

Their transit in goods wagons that have little ventilation was ruled out since the saplings could suffer damage in searing temperatures, Railway sources said. Of late, parcel vans, each of which can carry 23 tonnes of cargo and has adequate ventilation, are being relied on for this. Even otherwise, they used to carry vegetables and other edible items. They reach Assam on the fourth or fifth day.

Another 10 rake loads of the saplings are expected to be ferried to the northeast the coming year. There is also a good response, albeit seasonal, to shipping pineapple and other produce from Kerala in trains to cities in northern States, in different packing materials. Transporters of such produce can contact the nearest railway station and pay a refundable registration fee of ₹5,000. Tiller manufactured at Kerala Agro-Machinery Corporation Ltd. (KAMCO), Angamaly too were similarly shipped in trains to Tripura and Guwahati, they added.

The Rubber Board has in tandem, with respective State governments, been implementing NE-MITRA scheme to cultivate rubber in two-lakh hectares in seven north-eastern States across five years. Tyre corporates (represented by Automotive Tyre Manufactures Association – ATMA) too are extending support to the project. A total of 15 lakh saplings were transported from Thiruvalla in May 2021 alone. Railways has also extended such logistics help to transport rubber saplings of private parties, by making available parcel vans at short notice, it is learnt.