Prabhu lays foundation of auto car loading facility

Eyeing increased freight revenue by transporting more number of cars, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today laid the foundation for setting up an auto car loading facility at Farrukhnagar near the country's largest car manufacturer Maruti's facility at Manesar.
Currently, Maruti Suzuki has two production units--one at Gurgaon and another at Farrukhnagar which is about 25 km from Manesar in Haryana's Gurgaon district--but Railways serves these two centres with its Gurgaon auto car loading unit.
"We transport very less number of cars produced by Maruti. Maruti produces around 15 lakh cars but out of it, we only transport 40,000 cars. In next two years, we would be able to transport 25 per cent of the Maruti's production," Prabhu said while addressing the media here.

Stating that the initiative would increase revenue of Railways as well as improve the facility for the auto giant, he urged the car manufacturing company to come forward with its CSR funds to help further develop the unit.
Prabhu, through video conference, also inaugurated the renovated Gurgaon railway station with improved passenger amenities.
Railways had contributed around Rs 3.30 crore, while Rs 60 lakh came from MPLAD fund of Minister of State for Defense Rao Inderjit Singh and another Rs 53 lakh from RITES Ltd, a public enterprise under Indian Railways for the purpose.
"Gurgoan's name has changed to Gurugram. I feel that this station will also be known as Gurugram Station. With this new name, it has also become a new station," he said.

Describing today's initiative as an "example of partnership model", Prabhu stressed on the need of joint efforts by various stakeholders for developing public amenities at other railway stations as well.