New Delhi: Kanda Expresses running across the country are preventing onions from burning a hole in people’s pockets.
These freight trains have carried much of the 4,000 tonnes of buffer onions that the government has sold over the last 10 days across 17 cities with the aim to curb skyrocketing prices, consumer affairs secretary Nidhi Khare said on Sunday.
The Centre, through its agencies NCCF and Nafed, is sitting on a buffer stock of 1.21 lakh tonnes of onions for 2026, as reported by Deccan Herald.
These agencies are now transporting the stored onions in bulk from producing states to consuming centres, either by a dedicated rail rake christened “Kanda Express” or by trucks, as part of a retail intervention aimed at cooling prices. Onions are being sold at a subsidised rate of Rs 35 per kg in select price-sensitive cities.
“Approximately 4,000 tonnes of buffer onion have been sold so far in 17 cities,” Khare told PTI.
The Kanda Expresses have already transported bulk consignments to Delhi and Chennai. A third rake is now being loaded for dispatch to Guwahati in the coming days, she added.
“The distribution of buffer onions has brought some relief to consumers. Prices have fallen slightly,” Khare said, adding that the quality of the government’s buffer stock was comparable in size and quality to what private traders were selling.
The rabi onion crop, typically stored for release later in the year, had suffered some damage during harvesting due to untimely rains, she noted.
NCCF has alone sold 1,500 tonnes of buffer onion so far, its managing director Anice Joseph Chandra said.
“So far, we have sold 1,500 tonnes of buffer onions in different cities across the country. The focus is on retail and selling at Rs 35 per kg,” she said.
According to her, several state governments have shown interest in the scheme, with NCCF tying up with a few of them to sell through its stores, mobile vans, cooperative societies and other platforms identified by local administrations.
NCCF’s retail intervention is currently underway in the Delhi-NCR region, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Punjab, Odisha and a few other states. The nodal Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) is handling the sorting, grading, packing and movement of buffer onion to these states.
The subsidised sale has led to a Rs 2-3 per kg fall in prices, Chandra said.
The average all-India retail price of onion stood at Rs 50.79 per kg compared to Rs 48.5 per kg when the subsidised sale was launched on August 28, data maintained by the Department of Consumer Affairs shows.
Onion was retailing at Rs 58 per kg in Delhi, Rs 53 per kg in Mumbai, Rs 63 per kg in Chennai and Rs 40 per kg in Ranchi on September 5, while the average wholesale price stood at Rs 42.79 per kg.
The outlook for the new kharif onion crop looks promising, and its arrival in the market from mid-October is expected to ease supply pressure and bring further relief on prices, officials said.