Comments
The Railways may reduce freight charges for cement transportation in 400-500 km distance segment.
This segment accounts for about 10 per cent of the cement transported by the Railways.
The Ministry is considering various moves including freight rebates and loading in smaller size rakes to capture cement that is transported in this segment. This is the distance where cement might be getting diverted from railways to the road.
However, rail freight charges for cement traffic that is moved for over 500 km will not be reduced.
Following the freight rate hikes in March 6, the Indian Railways witnessed a muted growth of 0.19 per cent in cement loading in March on a year-on-year basis. For the fiscal 2011-12, cement loadings had seen an 8.62 per cent growth.
Moreover, the cement throughput declined 1.61 per cent, indicating that the cement manufacturers used the Railways for shorter distances this March. For the fiscal, the throughput growth was about eight per cent.
“Cement that moved for below 400 km stretch never came to the Railways. Very less amount of cement is getting diverted, barring short lead cement, which was any way not coming to the Railways,” said a Ministry official.
The Railways will continue to target longer lead cement.
About 42 per cent of the total cement produced is moved by rail.
Cement accounts for almost 10 per cent of the Railways' freight revenues.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.