A freight train carrying 1051 MT of urea arrived at North Lakhimpur railway station to provide the fertilizers at cheaper rates in Assam’s Lakhimpur district.
The consignment came after an initiative by district agriculture officials in accordance with the plan envisioned by Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and coordinated by Lakhimpur deputy commissioner Sumit Sattawan.
The IFFCO-Urea Fertilizer Rake started its functions at North Lakhimpur railway station which were earlier limited up to Tinsukia railway station only.
The move comes into effect after the skyrocketing of fertilizer prices in the Lakhimpur district hit the farmers hard with a scarcity of urea.
The fertilizer rake facility at the North Lakhimpur railway station would enable the farmers of the Lakhimpur district to buy urea at Rs. 5.91 per kilogram.
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The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) in a statement on September 9 revealed that NFR unloaded 1019 freight carrying trains in August 2021 as against 897 in August 2020 with an increase of 13.6%.
NFR carried 8737 rakes of freight trains from January to August 2021 and unloaded them in different goods sheds in its jurisdiction.
Goods like FCI rice, sugar, salt, edible oil, POL, food grains, fertilizer, cement, stone chips, iron/steel, onion, maize, auto, container and other items have been transported during the month.
During August, 526 rakes of freight-carrying trains were unloaded in Assam out of which 317 were loaded with essential commodities.