Who has not heard of the word
“Banana Republic”. It is one of the most famous words in English and one that
is used rather frequently to describe unstable economies and countries on the
verge of social, political and economic collapse.
This is a term in political science,
used for a politically unstable country whose economy is largely dependent on
the export of a single limited-resource product, such as bananas. It was
originally coined by the American writer William Sydney Porter (1862–1910),
better known as O’Henry.
He used the term for the
first time to describe his fictional Republic
of Anchuria in the book Cabbages
and Kings (1904), a collection of thematically related short stories inspired
by his experiences in Honduras
during the 1896–97, when he was wanted in the U.S.
Well, if Banana Republic in
political science also stands for a dictatorship that abets or supports, for kickback,
the exploitation of large-scale plantation agriculture, how would you describe
a banana train. Yes, a banana train that has been operational in India
Sadly, very few Indians outside
farmers, horticulturists and officials of
Indian Railways and Horticulture Department have heard of the train, let
alone seen it.
However, growers, traders and
even consumers are happy at the launch of the Banana Train.
The Banana Train runs from
Jalgaon in Maharashtra to Dehli.
Jalgaon is India ’s biggest banana centre and Delhi
The train operates once or twice
a week and it unloads bananas at the rail yard of the Azadpur mandi in Delhi Asia ’s biggest market for fruits and
vegetables.
The train has 80 insulated
and ventilated containers and it can easily carry more than a thousand tonnes
of bananas. It was launched in mid-September 2011 and it has proved to a boon
to traders and consumers alike.
It is also called the ‘horti
train’, and it has not only reduced transportation cost for traders, but also
seen a sharp drop of waste reported during transportation of fruits and
vegetables by road. It is generally accepted that 20 per cent to 30 per cent of the horticulture
produce goes waste because of lack of modern storage and transportation
facilities.
The banana train was the idea
of the National Horticulture Board under the Agriculture Ministry, Container
Corporation of India (CONCOR) and the Indian Railways. Both the board and
CONCOR have invested Rs 8 crore each for transporting fruits and vegetables
across the country.
Each container can hold at
least 12 tonnes and the train generally makes five trips a month from Raver near Jalgaon to Delhi
Both Jalgaon and Bhusawal in
Maharashtra are the biggest banana producing regions in India and they mostly cater to markets in north India , including Delhi
The horti train was first
mooted under the Kisan Vision Yoyana launched by the Indian Railways in 2009. It
had successfully conducted a dry run of the banana route from Jalgaon to
Azadpur and an onion route from Nashik
in Maharashtra to Kolkata and Malda in West Bengal, which terminated in Fatwa, Bihar .
A dry run of a potato train
was also conducted from Kolkata to Guwahati and from Agra
to Bangalore
Enthused by the response to
the banana train, the horticulture mission has proposed an expenditure of R100
crore during the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017) where the cost would be shared
by CONCOR. It aims to launch ten such trains for carrying fruits and vegetables
between growing and consuming regions during the next five years.
Do you want a reality check.
So here it is.
The container rake docked at
the Kherwadi railway station, north of the 
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