Union Minister Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw
Credit: PTI
New Delhi: The Ministry Railways on Tuesday launched a new policy for boosting the movement of bulk cement.
The new policy aimed at reducing the transportation cost of cement, creating a smaller carbon footprint compared to trucks, and reducing road congestion as a bulk of the commodity is transported via roads, said Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw while announcing the new policy.
As per the new policy, railways will charge a flat rate of Rs 0.90 per tonne per kilometre when the commodity is moved in special tank containers developed by Container Corporation of India Ltd (Concor).
Besides, the national transporter will build bulk cement handling terminals across the country through public-private partnerships to facilitate the rapid and cost-efficient movement of the commodity from production centres to consumers.
The Minister further said cement is the first commodity to be included under this focused logistics solution by the transporter. More industries will be identified by Railways for reforms and focused policy measures.
“The policy promotes the use of tank containers to support efficient multimodal, end-to-end logistics for bulk cement. The tank container is an effective end-to-end logistics solution for bulk cement transportation. It is designed with standard dimensions of 20 ft × 8 ft × 8.5 ft, offering a payload capacity of 26 tonnes and a gross weight of 31 tonnes.
Each container allows efficient operations with a loading and unloading time of just 25–30 minutes. Its design makes it ideal for seamless multimodal transportation—moving easily from train to trailer and back to train—enabling smooth delivery from the point of production to the point of consumption,” the statement said.
The policy enables the movement of large volumes of cement in a single consignment and minimizes packaging requirements while reducing material losses from spillage. Additionally, the policy ensures faster turnaround times through mechanized loading and unloading, enhancing overall efficiency in cement logistics, the statement said.