Maruti Suzuki India to double car dispatch through rail in three years

In the last eight years, MSIL increased its car dispatches by five times. In FY15, the company had transported just 65,700 units by rail

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) is planning to nearly double its dispatches through railways in the next three years, Rahul Bharti, executive officer (corporate affairs) of MSIL, told Business Standard.
 

The country's largest carmaker, MSIL had transported 335,000 units through railways in 2022-23 (FY23). That was 18 per cent of the total cars transported. 

In FY22, the company had transported 223,000 units by rail. MSIL will develop railway sidings at its production facilities in Manesar in Haryana, and Hansalpur in Gujarat, Bharti said. 
 

The one at the Gujarat plant will be inaugurated first, he added.

Once the sidings are developed, the automobiles will be loaded on to the wagons at the production facilities. 

Currently, MSIL has to transport its cars by road to the railway stations — the ones nearest its production facilities — where they are loaded in railway wagons.

“The railway siding project in Gujarat, once fully operational, will dispatch nearly 300,000 vehicles, avoiding approximately 50,000 truck trips and about 1,650 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year,” he noted.

Apart from dispatching cars, MSIL takes the rail route to transport components and materials, which have either been imported or are being exported, between ports and plants, said Bharti. “The company is making efforts to systematically increase dispatches by about 100,000 units annually.” 

This means that by FY26, the carmaker plans to transport about 650,000 units annually by railways.

In the last eight years, MSIL has increased its car dispatches by five times. In FY15, the company had transported just 65,700 units by rail.

MSIL believes that transport by rail is more efficient, as it avoids congestion on roads, saves fuel, and brings down overall carbon emissions, Bharti said. 

“Towards this, MSIL is creating infrastructure through the development of wagons, railheads, among others. 

The company currently utilises seven loading terminals across Delhi-NCR, and Gujarat and 18 destination terminals (Bengaluru, Nagpur, Mumbai, Guwahati, Mundra Port, Indore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Delhi-NCR, Siliguri, Coimbatore, Pune, Agartala, Silchar, Ranchi, and Ludhiana).”

Meanwhile, Indian Railways is redesigning wagons and overhauling track infrastructure so that more cars, especially sports utility vehicles (SUVs), could be transported on its good trains. 

Through these steps, it aims to halve the cost of freight for automakers, a Railway official said.

Almost 51.5 per cent of the 3.89 million passenger vehicles (PVs) sold in India during FY23 were utility vehicles (UVs), according to the data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. 
 

While the overall PV sales were up 26.7 per cent in FY23, growth in the UV segment was 34.7 per cent.

The UV segment consists of SUVs and multi-utility vehicles. MSIL led the UV segment in FY23, with a market share of about 18 per cent.