• Ministry of Railways rolls out a new iron ore policy governing allocation of rakes and transportation of iron ore
• Production of steel is critically dependent on transportation of iron and other raw materials.
• The policy sets down clear guidelines on how to fully meet the requirement of customers by leveraging infrastructure facilities available at loading and unloading ends to the fullest.
• The new policy has been named as ‘Iron-ore Policy 2021’ and shall come into effect from 10th February 2021.
• The aim of policy is to attune it to the present day needs of customers and assure them that Indian Railways is fully committed to meet the complete requirement of transportation of iron ore customers and provide total logistics support to the steel industry to meet the competitive challenges domestically and globally.
• Iron-ore is the second most important stream of traffic of Railways and along with steel accounts for nearly 17% (53.81 Million Tonne of Steel & 153.35 Million Tonne of Iron ore) of total 1210 Million Tonne freight loading of IR in 2019-20.

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• The new Iron-ore Policy, 2021 issued by the Ministry of Railways is expected to have a positive impact on the steel industry, provide powerful impetus to the core sector of the economy and boost the country’s economic growth.

Key highlights of the policy

• Removes existing categorization: Existing categorisation based on customer’s profile into CBT/Non CBT customers henceforth is being done away with. Old and new plants will be treated similarly as far as allotment/loading of rakes is concerned.
• Priority movement of Iron ore: Categorization of Priority of movement of Iron Ore has now been based on the availability of Railway infrastructure developed by the customer for loading/unloading and the nature of movement between various types of sidings with a view to maximize iron-ore movement by rail.
• System generated priority to customers: The priority preferences for the customers will be self-generated by the system (Rake allotment scheme) based on customer profile (name of manufacture, consignor name, consignee name, siding/PFT name and code) fed in the system by the concerning zone.
• Priority to domestic manufacturing: Higher priority given to movement of iron-ore traffic for domestic manufacturing activity.
• Priority for domestic movement of iron-ore: Within domestic movement of iron-ore traffic, priority preference given to Steel /Pig Iron/Sponge Iron/pellet/sinter plant owning customers having their own private sidings at both loading as well as              unloading ends (C+), customers with private siding at either loading or unloading end (C), customers without any private siding of their own relying totally on public         goodsheds/sidings (C-) in that order.