The country's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), has sent 6.7 lakh cars from Indian Railways for sale in different parts of the country in the last six years. The company said in a statement today that it recorded a CAGR of over 18 per cent during this period.
In March 2014, the company sent its first shipment of cars through a double-decker Flexi-deck rack. Maruti says that the use of railways to send its cars to different parts of the country has helped it reduce emissions of around 3000 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
This saved about 100 million litres of fossil fuel. If these cars were sent through trucks, then trucks would have to make more than one lakh trip on national highways.
During the last financial year, more than 1.78 lakh cars were sent through the railways, which is 15% higher than the previous financial year. That's 12 per cent of the company's total sales for the year.
Referring to the importance of the railways in the transportation of cars, MSI MD and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa said that in view of the increasing sales, our team felt the need for large scale logistics. We felt that not only for expansion but also to reduce the danger, we should look for alternatives other than road mode logistics.
The company started with a single deck wagon that could carry 125 cars, then shifted to double-decker racks that could carry 265 cars. So far more than 1.4 lakh cars have been sent through them. The company is using 27 rakes which can run at a speed of around 95 kmph. Each rack can carry 318 cars.
MSI claimed that it is the first auto company in the country to get an automobile freight train operator (AFTO) license. With this, private companies can operate high speed, high capacity auto wagon racks on the network of Indian Railways. Currently, the company uses 5 loading terminals and 13 destination terminals. By connecting Agartala with the rail map, the rail mode has now reached the northeast. The company says that this will now take half the time for cars to reach the northeastern states.