Railways to offer 30% discount to bulk customers in loadings

Targeted customers are foodgrain, cement, limestone and steel companies while commodities such as coal and iron ore are absent

Aiming to increase its share in transportation of goods, the Railways has decided to give 30 per cent discount to the bulk customers on incremental loadings.

"We have empowered zonal general managers to give concessions to existing bulk customers under the newly launched liberalised station to station freight rates policy," said a senior Railway Ministry official.

According to the policy, bulk customers who do more loading than they did last financial year will get 30 per cent concession on incremental loadings.

"We are expecting an increase of loadings by 10 million tonnes in the current year through the liberalised policy," said the official.

In order to enable the Zonal railways to garner more traffic from road and other modes, broad guidelines are being issued to all zones for finalising station to station rates.

The targeted customers for railways are foodgrain, cement, limestone and steel companies while commodities such as coal and iron ore are not included in the new policy.

Railways is expecting it will help it to get more traffic from road and other modes.

Currently railways is exploring various ways to expand the freight basket by looking beyond transporting coal.

The freight target for the current financial year is 1,200 million tonnes.

Railways had recently rationalised its coal freight rates so that loading could be increased.