Maruti Suzuki to double car transportation by rail in India

Maruti Suzuki is aiming to double its car transportation volume by rail in India. Keeping a focus on that, Maruti Suzuki has reportedly started building train terminals at two of its Indian assembly plants. Nikkei Asia reports that Maruti Suzuki is looking to ship out more of its cars by train in an attempt to reduce transport costs and greenhouse gas emissions as well.

Speaking about the strategy, Toshihiro Suzuki, President and Chairman of the Japanese auto giant, has said in an interaction that increasing rail transport is a practical approach to achieve its goal of transport cost reduction and emission level reduction as well. "Increasing rail transport is an effective approach," he said.

The report also claims that deliveries of the passenger vehicles by train from Suzuki Motor's Gujarat plant could commence in the next financial year. The vehicle transport from the Manesar facility via rail will soon start in 2024, claims the report.

Maruti Suzuki previously said that in the financial year 2020-21, the automaker transported more than 1.8 lakh vehicles using rail routes, which was around 13 per cent of the automaker's total sales volume that year. Also, it was claimed as the highest-ever railway dispatch by the company as compared to nearly 88,000 units transported via rail route back in the financial year 2016-17. Until the FY 2020-21, the automaker claimed that it could offset around 3,200 MT of greenhouse gas emission by using rail routes for transporting its cars to different locations instead of roadways.