The first ‘Kanda Express’, a dedicated rail rake, carrying about 453.65 tonnes of onion from Nashik in Maharashtra arrived in Delhi on Friday, as part of the government’s efforts to boost supplies in the national capital and nearby cities and rein in prices.
The onion, stored at Nashik, will be sold at a subsidised rate of ₹ 35 per kg in Delhi-NCR.
Some of the stock will also be sent to nearby cities such as Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Jammu, she said.
Retail onion prices in the capital rose 88 per cent to ₹ 62 per kg on Thursday, up from ₹ 33 per kg a year earlier, according to data from the Consumer Affairs Ministry. Despite the spike in prices, Khare said onion availability remains comfortable to meet domestic demand in the coming months, supported by an estimated production of 307.37 lakh tonnes in 2025-26, broadly on par with 307.67 lakh tonnes produced the previous year. The Kanda Express initiative, launched in 2024-25 to improve logistical efficiency for large-scale onion movement, has been scaled up significantly.
The impact of the buffer stock release is expected to bring down retail onion prices in Delhi within a week, she added. Khare said a Kanda Express rake bound for Chennai would be loaded on Friday, followed by rakes for three other destinations — Madurai, Ernakulam and Guwahati – one after another.
