PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Friday urged the Centre to establish a dedicated fruit corridor through a railway link for the smooth transportation of horticulture produce from Kashmir to the rest of the country, while calling for railway projects to be aligned away from fertile orchard land.
In a letter to Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Mufti requested a specialised rail network focused on fruit transport, citing frequent disruptions and unpredictability of the national highway that hamper timely movement of produce.
Sharing the letter on her X handle, the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister thanked the Railway Ministry for keeping certain rail projects passing through orchards in abeyance, saying the decision has brought relief to lakhs of farming families.
“Farmers are not opposed to railway connectivity. On the contrary, a dedicated fruit corridor through a reliable rail network is urgently needed, particularly given the unpredictability and frequent disruptions of the national highway,” she wrote.
Mufti stressed that infrastructure development must be balanced with sustainability and should prioritise barren and uncultivable land instead of productive farmland. She called for a fresh assessment and realignment of proposed railway projects along unproductive land to safeguard livelihoods.
She also demanded rail connectivity for the Chenab Valley and Pir Panjal regions from Jammu, describing these areas as resource-rich and strategically important but economically constrained due to weak surface connectivity.
“Like the rest of India, Kashmir lives in its villages where most farmers are marginal landholders with no alternative income source. Rising unemployment among educated youth has further increased dependence on agriculture,” she said.
Mufti noted that many farmers have recently shifted to high-density and capital-intensive horticulture, and uncertainty over rail project alignments has created fear about the safety of their investments. She urged authorities to scrap current alignments affecting orchards and redesign them to protect fertile land.
She said such a move would reduce anxiety among growers and help safeguard the livelihoods of nearly 1.5 million families dependent on agriculture and horticulture in the Valley.
