Jammu, Oct 29: Northern Railway has maintained that in case of advance booking of parcel coaches for both directions through Joint Parcel Product-Rapid Cargo Service (JPP-RCS) trains, aggregator, trader or logistics service provider in J&K will have to pay only 1.5 times the normal rate (JP scale) as the total round-trip freight.
This means full freight for one side and a heavy discount of 50 percent on the return trip under JPP-RCS scheme, aimed at facilitating apple growers and fruit traders of Kashmir.
A clarification in this connection was made in an important joint meeting organised by the Jammu Railway Division of the Northern Railway on Thursday, October 29, 2026 in Srinagar, to connect apple growers and fruit traders of Kashmir with safe and economical rail transport.
The meeting was held in the chamber of the Director, Horticulture Planning and Marketing, Srinagar.
According to Raghvender Singh, Public Relations Inspector, Jammu Railway Division, the meeting was attended by the Area Manager, Jammu Railway Division and other railway officials.
The Horticulture Department was represented by various Marketing Officers and Assistant Grading Officers of the Kashmir region, including officers from Parimpora, Bandipora and Anantnag besides the cargo aggregators.
The main objective of the meeting was to facilitate the transportation of Kashmiri apples and other horticulture products through trains by creating better coordination between the Horticulture Department and Northern Railway.
“In the meeting, a new arrangement was discussed in detail in the interest of traders. The Railways clarified that if any aggregator, trader or logistics service provider makes an advance booking of parcel coaches for both directions through JPP-RCS trains, then he will have to pay only 1.5 times the normal rate (JP Scale) as the total round-trip freight,” official stated.
For the convenience of traders, according to the official, the entire process of booking and payment will be completed at once at the originating station itself, which will free them from paperwork and save time. Under this initiative, special emphasis has been laid on concessional freight rates to connect traders to the rail network instead of roadways.
It was emphasised in the meeting that a strong and vibrant coordination between Northern Railway and cargo aggregators is extremely necessary, so that this proposed arrangement does not remain confined to papers only but actually gets implemented on the ground and the producers get its direct benefit.
“All stakeholders present in the meeting expressed positive consent on this proposal of the Railways. At the same time, technical aspects like its commercial viability, freight charges, cargo handling arrangements, train schedule and collection and delivery facilities were also discussed in detail,” official said, adding that several important meetings had already been held between the Railways and cargo aggregators on this subject earlier.
The Railways assured the fruit growers that the railway administration was committed to provide them with all possible assistance. “All stakeholders will be informed in due course about the future action plan and progress of the next phase of this scheme,” it was reaffirmed.
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