The special train for carrying farm produce left Jashore without vegetables, having been launched without publicity. It set off from Jashore station for Dhaka at midday on Tuesday (22 October).

Farmers and vegetable traders say they had not heard of the train because it was not publicised. The railway, however, says there was publicity but little response on the first day.

According to sources, a large share of the country's vegetable demand is met from the Jashore region, whose biggest wholesale market is Satmail Barobazar. Growers and wholesalers there complain that carrying vegetables by road costs extra and that they must pay extortion along the way, which affects prices. Against this backdrop Bangladesh Railway has launched a new train, the "Krishipanya Special", to carry farm produce. The train, launched on Tuesday, ran from Khulna via Jashore, Jashore Cantonment and Barobazar towards Dhaka, but left Jashore without vegetables on its first day.

To control rising prices of daily essentials, the Eastern Zone authority of Bangladesh Railway took the initiative to collect farm produce from 15 producing regions and ensure supply across the country. As part of this, the farm produce special train left Khulna for Dhaka at 10.15am on Tuesday. Due at Jashore at 11.15am, it arrived 40 minutes late and left for Dhaka without any farm produce or food bookings.

Abdul Alim, a vegetable grower from Chhoto Haibatpur village in Jashore Sadar, said: "I'm hearing about the train from you for the first time. I don't know when it will start or whether it has." Asked a further question, he said it would be good for them if the train stopped at Munshi Meherullah station, as sending produce by train from there would help them.

Atiar Rahman, a commission agent at Barinagar Satmail market in Jashore Sadar, said: "I didn't know about the special train for vegetables. For sending vegetables from our wholesale shops, trucks are better and more convenient. Farmers leave their produce at our shops, and trucks can load right in front. Going to the station is hard for us. Still, if we could send goods by train, we would benefit financially."

Jashore railway station master Aynal Hasan said the special train will run every Sunday and Tuesday. Extensive publicity was carried out among traders and the agriculture department was informed about the new service, but the first day did not bring the hoped-for response. "We are hopeful of a response in future." He said farmers or traders can send vegetables or goods to Dhaka at Tk 1.40 a kg, and urged them to use the train for its low fare.

Dr Sushanta Kumar Tarafdar, deputy director of the DAE in Jashore, said they knew about the special train. It was discussed recently at a training for vegetable growers from Abdulpur village in Jashore Sadar, and they took it positively. As sending produce by train costs less, farmers will benefit financially, he said.

Train manager Julhas Uddin said the train left Khulna with 640 kg of goods and had a 10-minute stop at Jashore, where no goods were found, though he hopes goods will come in future. Besides Jashore, the seven-coach special stops at Munshi Meherullah, Barobazar, Mobarakganj, Kotchandpur, Safdarpur, Ansarbaria, Uthali, Darshana and other stations, and with vegetables it will stop at Dhaka's Airport, Tejgaon and Kamalapur stations at around 8.30pm.

The train will carry farm produce to Dhaka from Khulna on Sundays and Tuesdays, from Panchagarh on Thursdays and from Chapainawabganj on Saturdays. Carrying a kg of vegetables and farm produce will cost from Tk 1.08 to a maximum of Tk 1.47. On the first day the special left Khulna with 640 kg of goods in seven coaches. He said the train will offer the capacity to move 120 tonnes of goods every day.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.