In order to facilitate smoother transportation of perishable goods by providing redressal to issues that reefer van operators face on Indian Highways, Agriculture Minister, Shri Radha Mohan Singh announced the launch of a Reefer Vehicle Call-In Centre (RVC) here today. Launching the unique call-in- centre, he said that the cold chain sector is fast growing, and key products including fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, poultry, dairy products, confectionery and pharmaceuticals are critically dependent on it. An essential link between source and markets is refrigerated transport, which face several bottlenecks and challenges. The RVC will help crate a database of bottlenecks and their types across the national highways. The response generated from this exercise will help devise long term plans and policies to alleviate bottlenecks and thus control inflation in prices of perishable goods in the country.
The Minister said that this initiative, perhaps first of this kind in the world would provide help in registering the complaints of more than 30,000 vehicles carrying perishable goods like vegetables and fruits. They can register their complaints on toll free number 18002676223. Complaints may include extortion, transit delays, harassment, etc. The RVC is a joint initiative by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, National Centre for Cold-chain Development (NCCD) and Mahindra Logistics, he informed. Shri Singh further said that interspersed with Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of introducing e-governance measures, particularly in the agriculture sector, this call-in-centre will help in enhancing overall productivity by improving connectivity. India produces about 270 million tonnes of fruits and vegetables and there are about 8000 refrigerated trucks capable of total cargo throughput capacity of 3.6 million tonnes, he added.