India, Nov. 19 -- Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday launched a new policy to rationalise freight charges for bulk cement transportation and said it will bring down the cost of cement to benefit both the manufacturers as well as consumers. The policy will also facilitate setting up of bulk cement terminals across the country, he said.

Vaishnaw said that the bulk cement transportation cost has been made uniform at a flat rate of 90 paisa per ton per km while removing the earlier system of calculating freight charges on the basis of distance and weight slabs.

The new policy will also promote tank containers, a new type of wagons, in which bulk cement can be filled and transported to any location for consumption. "This new innova...