The Union Ministry of Railways has approved a new iron-ore policy governing allocation of rakes and transportation of iron ore.
This new policy has been named as Iron-ore Policy 2021 and will come into effect from 10 February 2021. The provisions of the new policy will be updated in the rake allotment system module by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS).
As per the new policy, higher priority will be given to the movement of iron ore traffic for domestic manufacturing activity. Within the domestic movement of iron ore traffic, priority preference will be given to steel, pig iron, sponge iron, pellet, or sinter plant owning customers having their own private sidings at both loading as well as unloading ends.
They will be followed by customers with private siding at either loading or unloading ends. Customers without any private siding of their own relying totally on public good sheds, the sidings will come next in the priority list.
The categorisation of priority of movement of iron ore has now been based on the availability of railway infrastructure developed by the customer, for loading or unloading, and the nature of movement between various types of sidings with a view to maximise iron ore movement by rail.
Under the fresh policy, old and new plants will be treated similarly as far as allotment and loading of rakes is concerned. The priority preferences for customers will be self-generated by the system based on customer profile fed in the system by the concerning zone.