Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday launched a new policy to rationalise freight charges for bulk cement transportation and said it will bring down the cost of cement to benefit both the manufacturers as well as consumers. The policy will also facilitate setting up of bulk cement terminals across the country, he said.
Vaishnaw said that the bulk cement transportation cost has been made uniform at a flat rate of 90 paisa per ton per km while removing the earlier system of calculating freight charges on the basis of distance and weight slabs.
The new policy will also promote tank containers, a new type of wagons, in which bulk cement can be filled and transported to any location for consumption. “This new innovation will make environmentally clean transportation at a significantly reduced cost as cement bags will not be used,” the railway minister said.
Officials said that the Indian Railways has come up with a logistics solution for the transportation of bulk cement in the form of tank containers which are suitable for multi-modal transportation (train-trailer-train) from point of production to point of consumption.
They added that the Railways will facilitate setting up of bulk cement terminals across the country through the policy as transportation of bulk cement from plant to the terminals near consumption centres in specialised wagons is cost effective and environment friendly. Cement manufacturers said that the new policy will be a game changer.
Aparna Dutt Sharma, Secretary General of Cement Manufacturers Association, the apex body representing the cement industry in India, said that these reforms will fulfil the expectations of the sector.
Talking to media, Sharma said that the bulk cement consumption is in the range of 18 to 20 per cent and the present share of bulk cement, which is moved by the Railways, is around 8 to 9 per cent.
She added that 60 to 65 per cent of the cement market is within 300 kms distance from the manufacturing units, hence the new policy will be a game changer. Several cement manufacturers said that transportation of the bagged cement is not very viable because of secondary transportation charges due to use of goods shed and warehouses.
“The new bulk policy will remove multiple secondary charges such as transportation charges, handling charges, etc,” said a manufacturer. He added that the location of bulk terminals will be developed by the Railways in consultation with the cement manufacturers.
