Indian Railways spoke to the head honchos of cement majors on Friday to increase its share of cement loading .
IR loaded 70 million tonnes of cement and 40 million tonnes of clinker in FY20.
Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal met representatives of Cement Manufacturers Association, CEOs, MDs and officials from several Cement companies – Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd., Ambuja Cement Ltd., Shree Cement Ltd., Ultra Tech Cement Ltd. JK Cement Ltd., JK Lakshmi Cement Ltd., JSW Cement Ltd. Prism Johnson Ltd., Mangalam Cement Ltd. Heidelberg Cement Ltd and My Home Industries Pvt. Ltd.
Cement and clinker loading contributes around 9.3 per cent to IR’s total commodity basket per annum. It yields around 9 per cent in terms of revenue.
IR transports about 21 per cent of cement produced (rail coefficient of about 21 per cent)
During the current fiscal, IR carried 28.18 MT during the six month period between April and September .
Industry leaders were informed that all operational restrictions have been removed for cement loading. Railways have implemented several measures such as removal of penalty at originating point after weighment, for en-route weighment punitive charge only from originating to en-route weighment point and not for the entire distance from Origin to destination.
Withdrawal of busy season surcharge etc. Sustained and Timely Availability of Rakes has been ensured by good mobility and improved turnaround of jumbo rakes.
Hence there was no need to resort to panic loading for congested destinations. These measures have increased the demand and rail share has gone up by two per cent compared to last year FY20.
Cement sector companies requested for availability of sufficient rakes (mini rakes, two points rakes etc.), good infrastructure in railway sidings, proper connectivity, proper timetable to save time, making availability of land for development of private infrastructure near Cement plants, etc.
They also demanded to increase facility for export of Cement and Clinkers to neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
The Railway Minister considered all the above demands raised by Cement companies and emphasized on efficiency and transparency on transport of Cement through Railway.
Trace and track policy is already working in which online facility is of loaded item can be checked.
Cement Sector has been advised to submit their detailed proposal on increasing export in neighbouring countries.