Union Minister for Railways Shri Ashwini Vaishnav has announced structural reforms to modernise Indian Railways. Toward the same end, he has picked up the long challenging issue connected with Fly Ash Transportation.

Fly Ash Transportation

Shri Vaishnaw said that India generates around 340 million tonnes of fly ash annually, of which nearly 96 million tonnes is utilised by the cement industry. 

Indian Railways transported about 13 million tonnesof fly ash during FY 2025-26, accounting for nearly four per cent of the country's total fly ash generation.

He said that fly ash has traditionally been transported through open wagons, resulting in dust pollution during loading, transportation and unloading. Fly ash also poses a significant environmental challenge when stored in large ash ponds at thermal power plants.

To address these issues, Indian Railways has introduced a new containerised transportation system for fly ash. Under the new policy, specially designed ISO-standard containers will be used for transportation. These containers can be loaded directly from the power plant through top-loading arrangements and unloaded using side-discharge or pneumatic systems without generating dust pollution.

Shri Vaishnaw said the closed-container system will enable pollution-free transportation, facilitate safe storage within cement plants until the material is required, and significantly improve logistics efficiency. The containers can be handled through reach stackers, allowing seamless end-to-end movement from power plants to cement plants. The reform is expected to increase rail movement of fly ash, reduce dependence on road transport and convert an environmental challenge into an economically productive resource.