South Central Railway ships bananas in containers to JNPT

Tadipatri (Andhra Pradesh), Jan 23 : For the first time, bananas have been transported by train in freezer containers from Tadipatri station in Guntakal division of the South Central Railway (SCR) zone to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Mumbai for onward export to Middle Eastern countries.
“For the first time, bananas’ loading has commenced from Tadipatri station as a total of 43 reefer containers were loaded from the nearby cold storage units and warehouses for transporting by rail,” said a railway zone official.
Shipping bananas via railways comes as a major relief for horticultural hubs in Anantapur and Kadapa districts, where farmers generally prefer road transportation and suffer losses en route, considering their shipments go as far as the Middle Eastern countries.
Likewise, places such as Pulivendula, Tadipatri and their surrounding areas are famous for cultivation of good quality bananas and internationally renowned.
“To mitigate this problem and to assist the farmers with hassle-free transport facility, SCR in coordination with the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) has come up with the solution of reefer container transportation,” said the official.
She said that transportation of bananas through refrigerated containers through the railways provides faster freight transportation facility to customers.