An apple grower in Kotkhai, in Himachal Pradesh's Shimla district, has installed a petrol-run monorail system in his orchard to deal with a growing labour shortage and rising wages. Sunil Chauhan imported the monorail from China at a cost of around Rs 4.20 lakh, and it is now being used to carry plucked apples from the orchard down to the warehouse.
The move is a direct response to a problem that apple growers in the region know well — finding workers is getting harder, and paying them is getting more expensive. Instead of waiting for the labour situation to improve, Chauhan chose to bring in a machine that does the heavy carrying work himself.
What the Monorail Does in the Orchard
The monorail runs on a track laid at a slight elevation across the orchard. According to Chauhan, the system can carry up to 500 kg at a time, which makes it useful for far more than just apples.
"The monorail can carry up to 500 kg. It can transport apple boxes, crates, manure, fertilisers, tools and many other things required for farm operations." — Sunil Chauhan
That load capacity matters in an orchard, where the work is not limited to harvesting. Manure, fertilisers and tools all have to be moved around, often on uneven ground. A single system that handles all of this reduces the number of workers needed for daily operations.
Built for Hilly Terrain and Steep Slopes
Himachal's apple belt is spread across hilly terrain, where slopes make manual transport slow and tiring. Chauhan says the monorail can operate efficiently on slopes of up to 45 degrees, which is what makes it practical for orchards in the region.
He is currently conducting trial runs and says the system is working smoothly so far. He has also said he plans to explore more technologies for his orchard operations.
- The monorail is petrol-run, so it does not depend on grid electricity in remote orchard areas.
- It was imported from China at a cost of around Rs 4.20 lakh.
- It moves apples from the orchard to the warehouse, replacing manual carrying.
- It can also transport crates, manure, fertilisers and tools.
- Trials are ongoing, and Chauhan reports smooth performance.
Our Take: A Practical Fix for a Real Problem
In our view, this story is less about a fancy machine and more about a farmer solving a problem on his own. Labour shortage and rising wages are not temporary issues in Himachal's apple belt — they are changing how orchards are run. When workers are hard to find and costly to hire, growers either scale back or find another way.
Chauhan's choice is the second path. Spending around Rs 4.20 lakh on a monorail is a serious investment for an individual grower, and it shows how serious the labour problem has become. The fact that he imported the system from China also tells us something important — affordable orchard mechanisation is not easily available closer home.
To put it plainly, this is the kind of decision more apple growers may soon face. If a petrol-run monorail can move 500 kg on a 45-degree slope, it can replace a lot of manual labour during harvest season, which is exactly when growers struggle most to find workers. The trial runs are still early, and we do not yet know how the system performs over a full season or what its running and maintenance costs will look like. But as a first step, it is a sensible one.
What readers should take away is simple: technology is slowly entering Himachal's orchards, not as a luxury but as a necessity. Whether this particular monorail becomes a model for other growers will depend on its real-world results. For now, one grower in Kotkhai has shown that the option exists.