[TusharK]

Maruti Suzuki has transported over 6.7 lakh cars through Indian Railways in the past 6 years, which is said to have enabled the carmaker offset nearly 3,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.



The use of rail transport is also said to have resulted in fuel savings of over 100 million litres, as the company could avoid more than 1 lakh truck trips.

The first dispatch by double decker flexi-deck rakes took place in March 2014. In the past 6 years, the carmaker has witnessed a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 18%. In FY 2019-20, more than 1.78 lakh cars were transported by railways. This was a 15% increase compared to the previous year and nearly 12% of the total sales in the year.

Maruti Suzuki is said to be among the first carmakers to use railways for transporting vehicles. Initially, single deck converted rakes were used. The New Modified Goods (NMG) rake that were converted from old passenger coaches had a capacity of 125 cars.

Later, BCACM rakes were used. These were purpose-built double decker rakes that had a capacity of 265 cars. More than 1.4 lakh cars have been dispatched through these rakes.

Nowadays, BCACBM rakes with a capacity of 318 cars are used. These are designed to operate with a speed limit of 95 km/h. Maruti has more than 27 such high capacity rakes.

Maruti Suzuki is the first Indian carmaker that has an Automobile Freight Train Operator (AFTO) license. This allows private firms to fabricate and operate high speed, high capacity auto-wagon rakes on the Indian Railways network.

At present, Maruti Suzuki utilises five loading terminals (Gurgaon, Farukhnagar, Kathuwas, Patli and Detroj) and 13 destination terminals (Bangalore, Nagpur, Mumbai, Guwahati, Mundra Port, Indore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, NCR, Siliguri and Agartala).

Link to Team-BHP News

[stormdRider]

Thanks for sharing this info. Hats off to MSIL for this awesome eco friendly achievement. I had no idea, that any car manufacturer was using railways for their logistics.
Found this interesting video of cars being unloaded from a BCACBM and IMHO the carrier itself looks stunning.

https://youtu.be/zuAfcrA-Y8g

[sandeepmohan]

I took this picture around 2005 - 2006, just outside Dharmavaram in AP. I was train spotting here with two of my closest mates.



What is visible in the frame is about 30 wagons carrying no less than 180 cars. A TATA motors consignment of Indica, Indigo and some Sumo's, heading towards Bangalore. This rake passed us at a speed of no more than 60kmph, which means they could move these cars from the TATA plant to Bangalore in less than 2 days, after factoring delays of loading, shunting the rake, hold ups's and what not. Just one diesel electric locomotive to do the job too versus ~30 trucks at a minimum, to haul the same load. Not to forget, the time it would take those trucks to cover the same distance.

The line running closer to the trees was the Guntakal Tirupathi meter gauge line. We were lucky to spot a few trains too. Now replaced with a broad gauge line.

We dipped our fingers into the concept of moving vehicles by rail a long time ago but somehow never took it too seriously. Konkan Railway were the first to start such a thing with trucks. I don't know why it took two decades to get Indian Railways to offer this service for car manufacturers. Guess Leadership plays a big role. We did not have anyone like Piyush Goyal back then.

[sreeharipv]

Why Maruti is making this sound like rail transport is a new invention that they just made? If they wanted to be environmentally responsible, let them at least sell one EV model. Maybe its too difficult when your only business is building cars based on Suzuki design and have no original engineering talent.

[GTO]

Mod Note: Thread moved to the Commercial Vehicles section!

[srini1785]

Hope this is the start of dedicated private freight corridors of IR. There is a lot of media talk and this is probably the first baby steps.

[volkman10]

Maruti Suzuki’s annual dispatch of 3.2 lakh vehicle using rail mode highest-ever by any OEM in 2022.

This has resulted in offsetting around 1,800 MT of CO2 emissions. In addition, the company has been able to save over 50 million liters of fuel during the year which contributes to enhancing the energy security of India.



Hisashi Takeuchi, Managing Director & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India:

Going forward, we aim to further increase these numbers. For this, we are setting up dedicated railway sidings at our facilities in Haryana (Manesar) and Gujarat. We thank Indian Railways for their continued support in our endeavor to scale up vehicle dispatches using railways.

The Company has transported over 1.4 million vehicles using railways in the last 10 years, which has resulted in offsetting over 6,600 MT CO2 emissions.

Maruti Suzuki uses 40 specially designed railway rakes to transport vehicles across the country. Each rake has a capacity to carry 300+ vehicles. Presently, it utilizes 7 loading terminals across Delhi-NCR and Gujarat and 18 destination terminals.


Link

[Anwesh]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

.
I don't know why it took two decades to get Indian Railways to offer this service for car manufacturers. Guess Leadership plays a big role. We did not have anyone like Piyush Goyal back then.

I am aware that this is a three year old post, but just for clarity..........

New production car transport by rail has been going on since 1987. I was sales exec with a Mumbai dealer back then. All Mumbai and many other Maharashtra dealers had stockyards at Vapi (GJ) during those days and apart from trailer trucks Maruti also used to send a large consignment through dedicated car carrier rakes. These were old passanger coaches that were modified. I still remember driving out the last car from one such rake, jumping through twenty odd coaches.

Regards,

Anwesh

[Gansan]

Maruti has been using rail transport for more than a decade. Probably earlier the wagon capacity was less. When I bought my Alto in 2009, I noticed the odo reading was about 55 KM. I was informed by the showroom manager the cars arrive by rail and are unloaded at Tiruvallur railhead, then driven to the dealer stock yard. From there they are again driven to the showroom. The place is approximately 45 km away from the city.

Hero Motocorp, right from it's Hero Honda days, has been using rail transport for ages. I have seen hundreds of their bikes being unloaded at Tambaram railhead, then transported by local trucks to a nearby CWC warehouse for storage. From there the bikes are sent in small lots to various showrooms. I have observed this during 2006-07 period itself.