India Inc welcomes Railways' discount scheme

Coal constitutes 45% of railway's freight traffic shares

India Inc is upbeat about the Indian Railways’ plan to have long-term tariff contracts with consumers in cement, steel and fertiliser sectors, with many companies now willing to bring in more freight traffic to the national transporter.

Companies such as UltraTech Cement and ACC and industry body Cement Manufacturers’ Association (CMA) are already in talks with the railways to enter into long-term contracts. The new plan is likely to bring back the traffic the railways lost in the recent years. It is expecting an increase of six per cent in its freight traffic to 1,165 million tonne (mt) in 2017-18, compared