Union Food Minister Pralhad Joshi is set to inaugurate the subsidised sale on Thursday, a senior official in the consumer affairs ministry said.
The onions being released into the market are from a buffer stock of 1.21 lakh tonne maintained across producing states for 2026.
The retail intervention will be carried out through three agencies — Nafed, NCCF and Kendriya Bhandar.
“We will start the sale tomorrow in Delhi and after by weekend extend to the NCR region,” said Anice Joseph Chandra, Managing Director, National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India (NCCF) told PTI.
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NCCF, which holds a buffer stock of 62,000 tonne of onion, is transporting 400 tonne from Nashik, Maharashtra, via the “Kanda Express”, which is expected to reach Delhi on Thursday.The cooperative agency will retail onions through 100 Kendriya Bhandar stores and is in talks with Mother Dairy for sale through its 300 outlets, besides deploying mobile vans — 15 initially, rising to 40 from the day after tomorrow.
Supplies arriving by rail rake will also be used for sale in Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Varanasi and other cities, Chandra said.
Nafed, which is maintaining a buffer of less than 55,000 tonne of onion, will similarly sell onions in Delhi and other centres, including Kochi and Guwahati.
To move supplies quickly, the government is transporting bulk onion consignments to the capital via dedicated railway rakes christened “Kanda Express”.
The first such rake, carrying 800 tonne of onions, has already left Nashik and is en route to Delhi.
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Besides Delhi, four other centres — Chennai, Ernakulam, Madurai and Guwahati –are set to receive onion supplies through dedicated rakes, though bookings for these routes are yet to be made.
SHARP PRICE RISE TRIGGERS INTERVENTION
The move comes amid a steep spike in onion prices over the past month. The all-India average retail price rose over 28 per cent to Rs 44.72 per kg on August 25, up from Rs 34.80 per kg a month earlier on July 25. Compared with a year ago, when onions retailed at Rs 28.67 per kg, prices have jumped 56 per cent.
The situation is starker in several metros. On Wednesday, retail onion prices stood at Rs 60 per kg in both Chennai and Kolkata (against Rs 35 and Rs 32 per kg, respectively, a year ago), Rs 55 per kg in Delhi (Rs 33 a year ago), Rs 48 per kg in Mumbai (Rs 32) and Rs 38 per kg in Ranchi (Rs 25).
Wholesale prices have followed a similar trajectory. Ministry data shows the average wholesale price stood at Rs 36.73 per kg on August 25, up 63 per cent year-on-year from Rs 22.54 per kg, and up 33.5 per cent over the past month alone.
Officials attribute the price rise to the usual seasonal uptick seen between August and September, driven by festive demand, weather-related disruptions, supply chain movements and shifting consumption patterns.
Despite the price surge, the government maintains that onion availability remains adequate to meet domestic demand in the coming months. This is backed by an estimated 2025-26 production of 307.37 lakh tonne, broadly on par with the 307.67 lakh tonne recorded the previous year.