Indian Railways Ties-up With Self-Help group, to Sell Alphonso Mangoes in The Trains

This is a first of effort of the Indian railways to sell seasonal fruits in the trains.

New Delhi, June 2: Indian Railways have tied up with self-help groups which will sell organic Alphonso mangoes at a discounted price in the trains. The organic Alphonso mangoes will come from Ratnagiri, a port town in Maharashtra. This is a first of effort of the Indian railways to sell seasonal fruits in the trains.

According to reports, the mangoes will be sold at a price of `470 per dozen. “Under the e-catering project, Shree Mahalakshmi Swayam Sahayata Bachat Ghat, famous for its export-quality Alphonso mangoes, has shown interest in selling fresh and naturally ripened organic mangoes to passengers,” said the Railways as quoted by the New Indian Express.

Former Railway minister Suresh Prabhu, in his rail budget speech in 2016-17, had announced that the Railways’ partnership with self-help groups to support their work and products.

The Railways has also tied up with Trapigo, a last-mile business-to-business logistics service provider for food products which is a start-up launched by graduates from the Indian Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Management and National Institute of Fashion Technology.

Indian railways have taken many initiatives to make train journey more exciting for the passengers. Recently, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will be launching an app ‘Menu on Rails’ where passengers will get to know the food items which will be available on the train. The items will be shared with their respective prices.

In a bid to attract more passengers, IRCTC is coming with many initiatives. The authority had also tied up with most popular cab aggregator Ola with an aim to provide door to door service to its passengers. It is six-month pilot projects under which railway passengers can book an Ola cab on the IRCTC Rail connect app and website www.irctc.co.in. In past also they had tied up with food chains such as Domino’s, KFC, McDonald’s and Sagar Ratna among others to provide this service.