Question : Rationalising Freight Charges

(a) whether the Railways has any plan to rationalize the freight charges for transport of various goods including coal from the eastern sector to distantly located power plants of Gujarat and other areas in western sector;
(b) if so, the details or the plan envisaged and the time by which it will be implemented; and
(c) whether the Railways has any plan to introduce telescopic freight charges on the lines of passenger fare charges and if so, the salient features of the same?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI MANOJ SINHA)
(a) & (b) Rationalisation of freight structure is an on-going process. Recently, from 01.04.2015, the distance slabs beyond 1500 kilometers have been revised from 250 kilometer slab to 125 kilometer. Further, classification of Coal has also been reduced from Class-150 to Class-145.
(c) The freight rates are already telescopic in nature.
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