Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, Oct 05, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Oct 05, 2002 |
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Logistics
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Railways Industry & Economy - Cement Cement units want Rlys to review freight rates K.R. Srivats
NEW DELHI, Oct. 4 THE domestic cement industry has urged the Government to take a "re-look" at the existing freight structure adopted by the Railways for transportation of cement across the country. The share of cement transportation undertaken through the Railways in the total cement despatches has been consistently coming down over the last few years. "The cement prices continue to be under pressure. Rail transportation continues to be relatively expensive. There is a need to take a re-look at the freight structure so as to make it more realistic. It must be based on economic considerations", the outgoing President of the Cement Manufacturers' Association (CMA), Mr T.M.M. Nambiar, said at the 41st Annual Session of the CMA here. He felt that the existing element of cross-subsidisation of passenger fares by the freight rates needed to be addressed. Over the last three years, the quantity of cement transported by the Railways has been declining even as there has been an increase in production levels of the domestic cement industry. The Railways transported 38.7 million tonnes of cement during 1999-2000 and accounted for 41.2 per cent of the total cement despatched in that year. It transported 36.8 mt (39.4 per cent of the total cement despatched) and 36.2 mt (35.4 per cent of total cement despatched) during fiscal 2000-01 and 2001-02, respectively. "Even in the first five months of the current fiscal, only 15.9 mt (34.5 per cent of total cement despatches) were transported through the Railways. There has been a general decline in the use of Railways both in terms of percentage and actual quantity transported ", a senior CMA official told Business Line here.
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