According to a CR official on Tuesday, the Central Railway has dispatched six waggons full of onions from Manmad in the Nashik region of Maharashtra to Manipur.
Officials reported on Monday that the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) sent the first goods trains carrying essential commodities to the violence-hit north-eastern state on Sunday as a result of the current law and order situation in Manipur causing a shortage of essential items.
On Monday, the first goods train from Guwahati arrived at Khongsang Railway Station in the Tamenglong district of Manipur.
According to Dr. Shivraj Manaspure, the chief public relations officer for Central Railway, onions were placed into 22 waggons at Ankai Goods Shed, which is close to Manmad Station in Nashik, for shipment to Changsari Station, which is close to Guwahati in Assam, where six waggons were then dispatched to Khongsang Station in Manipur.
He stated, “Six waggons altogether arrived at Khongsang station on Monday.
According to the official, a local trader had reserved the waggons from Ankai to Khongsang.
He said that the 2,801 miles that the train carrying the onions had travelled from the Ankai freight shed to Khongsang on Monday night.
According to a railway official who spoke to PTI, the North Frontier Railway separated the six waggons carrying onions after the 22 waggons arrived at Changsari station and attached them to another goods train that was transporting various essential items, including potatoes, sugar, and other fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), to Manipur.
Since ethnic confrontations started in Manipur on May 3 as a result of a “Tribal Solidarity March” held in the hill regions to oppose the Meitei community’s quest for Scheduled Tribe (ST) designation, more than 160 people have died and others have been injured.
The majority of Meiteis, who make up around 53% of Manipur’s population, reside in the Imphal Valley. Another 40% of the population is made up of the Naga and Kuki tribes, who live in the hill districts.