National-level meeting held between Indian Railways and Cement Industry officials

Hyderabad: A national-level meeting was organized between Indian Railways officials and representatives from various cement industries, such as UltraTech, Vasavadatta Cements, My Home, Bharati, Penna, Dalmia, Orient, Jindal, etc., at a private hotel in Hyderabad on Saturday.
During the meeting, participants discussed various issues related to the cement sector, such as infrastructural requirements for future growth, policy interventions to aid cement transportation, and other relevant issues to improve the rail coefficient and logistics. The meeting aimed to further assist the cement industry in transporting their commodities through railways, a SCR statement said.
In the last financial year, Indian Railways registered 144 million tonnes of cement and clinker loading, and South Central Railways achieved 34.499 MTs of cement loading in 2022-23 against 34.108 MTs in 2021-22. The meeting was a significant step to gather the views of the industry to further strengthen cement loading by railways.
The Cement Manufacturers Association gave presentations regarding the growth of the cement sector, the overall logistics scenario, the volumes expected in the near future due to the growth in installed capacities of various plants, and the role of railways as a strategic partner for the cement industry.
Senior officers from Railway Board and South Central Railway assured cooperation for the growing cement sector and also outlined various infrastructural projects in the offing and measures taken to help the cement sector.
Manoj Kumar Srivastava, Principal Executive Director, Traffic Transportation, and Kamlesh Kumar Mishra, Executive Director, Business Development participated from Railway Board, New Delhi. Raveen Kumar Reddy, Principal Chief Commercial Manager, B Nagya, Principal Chief Operations Manager, South Central Railway, and other officials from Railway Board, SCR, Western Railway, and CONCOR also participated in this meeting.