The decision was taken during a meeting of Union ministers of steel Dilip Ray and railways Mamta Banerjee on Thursday.

The plant had been meeting the entire requirements of rails before imports began. In the last year three years, the total quantity of rails supplied by the plant had been 4 lakh tonnes per annum which included 52 and 60 kg rails. The plant's total capacity increased to 4.5 lakh tonne of rails per annum.

Emphasising the need for inter sectoral linkages to boost the growth of infrastructure sector, Ray assured the railway minister that qualitative changes had been made to meet standards as per the railway requirement. Last year's accident near Khanna in Punjab was attributed to poor quality rails.

Another crucial issue discussed by the ministers concerned the supply of wheels and axle from the Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP). Though the plant had been producing exclusively for the railways and private wagon builders, the numbers had come down recently.

The two ministers decided that the interest of DSP and the railways' own wheel and axle plant at Bangalore would be taken into consideration when supplies were to be given to the private parties. An open tender system with the lowest bidder would be the criteria.

The load classification for washed coal had been increased in the last budget. This amounted to higher freight charges for the steel industry since washed coal is a major input for steel production.

Ray asked his counterpart to reduce the rate and not to increase freight rates in the next budget for steel and its raw material. The railway minister agreed to reduce the load classification for washed coal to the minimum. As far as reducing freight classification for steel was concerned, the minister said that the ministry would look into the issue.

Banerjee also agreed to examine the issue of minimum distance for application of freight rates. The railways charge freight rates applicable to minimum distance of 100 km even if the minimum distance travelled was less.

Ray requested the railway minister to change the criterion for payment to the actual distance travelled. Banerjee assured that a rationalised programme would be chalked out soon.

The issue of 30 per cent inflated freight charges presently being levied by the South-Eastern Railway on iron ore traffic between Kirandul and Kothavalasa was also raised by the steel minister. Though the actual distance between Kirandul and Vishakapatnam was only 475 km, the railways charge for 610 km.

Banerjee asked the steel minister to assist the railways in converting the 24,000 unmanned crossings to manned crossings.

In the last budget, former railway minister Nitish Kumar had announced that in order to reduce accidents caused due to rail fractures and weld failures, intensive checking with the help of ultra sonic flaw detectors would be done.He had also mentioned that pressure on rail manufacturers would be exerted to ensure quality in steel and correct manufacturing process.