Maruti Suzuki Transports 1.8 Lakh Units via Indian Railways In 2020-21.
Indicating an increased focus by car manufacturers on using railways to transport vehicles, India’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki has transported over 7.2 lakh vehicles using Indian railways over the last five years.
In a highest ever dispatch by the company using Railways, it has transported 1.8 lakh units using the rail route in the last fiscal.
- Maruti Suzuki records highest ever dispatches via Indian rail system in FY2021
- Over 1.4 lakh Maruti Suzuki cars have been transported on new twin-deck rakes
- 36 high-speed and high-capacity rakes are in active use by Maruti Suzuki
Considering Maruti Suzuki sold 12,93,840 units in FY2021, the rail shipments account for nearly 14 percent of its total sales in India, highlighting the importance of the dispatches by rail to far-flung corners of the country. Furthermore, the increased focus on using railways has helped the company offset over 3,200 MT of CO2 emissions, cumulatively.
Explaining the objective of using railways for transporting vehicles, Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India said, “The transportation of finished vehicles via railways has many tangible benefits. It is a clean, environment-friendly mode of transportation. It reduces congestion on highways and there is more space available to other vehicles. Therefore, as a conscious effort, at Maruti Suzuki, we have taken important steps to enhance vehicle transportation via railways. We thank the Ministry of Railways for their support, which helped to increase our volumes transported via rail.”
Maruti Suzuki has moved from using single deck converted rakes to deploying high speed, high-capacity new design double deck rakes. The operations started with the use of railway wagons (converted from old passenger coaches). These single deck wagons had a rake capacity to transport 125 cars.
Courtesy: Autocar, The Hindu