For readjusting freight rates for POL, the Railways is banking on the possibility of an increase in volume of core commodities. "We may readjust freight rates for POL in the course of the year if the volumes in other core commodities go up," said Railway Board member (traffic) Shanti Narain.

POL gives the Railways a good profit margin. However, the Railways is facing competition from pipelines. "We cannot afford to let down this sector. According to a Teri study, the energy efficiency of transporting POL through the railways is higher than the pipelines. We want to cash in on this," said Narain.

The Railways will classify its customers into three categories -- platinum, gold and silver. "Seventy per cent of our goods business comes from some 100 points. We will give special status to them," hesaid.

For cement, the Railways plans to concentrate on the bigger plants, especially pockets in Bilaspur district (south-eastern sector), Sholapur (central sector) and Ratlam-Chitorgarh (western sector).

The Railways has also set up a society for working out strategies for the entire core sector. Called the Centre for Transport Research and Development, it has been registered under the Societies Act and comprises railway officials from the traffic division. It is also open for corporate membership.

The society, which will meet quarterly to focus on various sectors, is scheduled to hold its first meeting in April and first interaction with customers in July.

"The society will serve as a think-tank and study issues and suggest measures for improving freight volumes," said Narain.

For the coal sector, a group has been set up to review linkages. The railway officials recently held a meeting with the chairman of the Coal India Ltd and coal secretary.

"Coal import is becoming a threat for both the coalindustry and the Railways," said Narain. Linkages have been worked out between the coal sector and the Railways on the basis of former's production and latter's operating patterns.

For instance, the Nashik power plant of the Maharashtra State Electricity Board gets coal from Western Coalfields in Nagpur and also from Korba and Mahanandi. It is cheaper to get coal from Nagpur since the distance is shorter. "If all coal is brought from there, it will be cheaper," observed Narain.

Core sectors constitute around 95 per cent of the total goods traffic. "We cannot afford to ignore them. If the core sector does not come up, we will not be able to do much to improve our earnings," he said.

According to Narain, the share of non-core goods might go up from the present 5 per cent to 10-15 per cent but core goods would continue to dominate.