Having launched a stall at the Dhanbad Railway Station on April 9 as part of the second phase of One Station One Product (OSOP) scheme of Indian Railway to promote local products of local artisans, Dhanbad Rail Division as part of the phase-3 of scheme is set to launch similar stalls at 14 stations of Dhanbad division spanning over Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, besides Jharkhand.

Applications have been invited in this regard from interested Non Governmental Organizations (NGO), Self Help Groups (SHG) and individual artisans for setting up stalls at these stations.

Notably in first phase of OSOP scheme stalls have been set up from March 30 at altogether 19 railway stations across the country in different railway zones on a pilot project basis while during the second phase that began from April 9 one railway stall have been set up at one stations of altogether 68 different railway divisions for promoting local products of local artisans.

At Dhanbad station, the stalls put up by the Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) during the second phase were used to sell the local products made by the women self group members of JSLPS. The products made by these SHG members like hand bags, purses, pickles, local handmade jewelleries etc witnessed good sales from the stall.

Stalls will be launched at 14 stations of Dhanbad division, including Parasnath in Giridih district, Koderma in Koderma district, Chandrapura station in Bokaro district, Barkakana Station in Ramgarh district, Hazaribagh town station in Hazaribagh district, Khelari in Ranchi district, Tori in Latehar district, Daltonganj in Palamau District, Nagar Utari in Garhwa district, Paharpur in Gaya district of Bihar, Renukoot and Chopan stations in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, Singrauli station in Singrauli station of Madhya Pradesh.

Talking to media, Ahilesh Kumar Pandey, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager of Dhanbad division of East Central Railway said, “To promote local products stalls are being operated under the one stall one product scheme. Each station will get local products at their stall. The scheme besides providing the source of livelihood and employment will also provide recognition to the local products

Welcoming the railway initiative, Rajesh Kumar Gupta, Patron of Federation of Dhanbad Zila Chamber of Commerce and Industry who is also a former members of divisional railway users consultative committee said, “As a trader I wholeheartedly welcome the railway initiative. This will help popularise the local products of every area and in turn will promote the local industry."