Indian Railways now transports 20% of cars produced across the country

Amid India’s push to decarbonise automobile supply chains, the share of four-wheelers transported by Indian Railways has risen to 20 per cent of national production, according to senior government officials.

  “In 2024-25, 1 million units of cars were transported via railways. This is 20.6 per cent of India’s total car production of over 5 million,” said an official.

  In 2014, only 1 per cent of India’s automobiles were transported through railways.

  The ministry of railways has been working on its Automobile Freight Train Operator (AFTO) scheme, making it more conducive for the sector, which had long been reliant on carbon-intensive road transport for transporting vehicles.

  “Regular interaction and meetings have been held with all the stakeholders in the automobile industry, including the Society for Indian Automobiles Manufacturers (SIAM). On the basis of the issues raised by the stakeholders, the AFTO policy has been liberalised. Minimum number of rakes to be procured has been relaxed from three rakes to one rake,” the official said on initiatives of the government to facilitate this transition.

 

Moreover, the registration fee for AFT Operators has been done away, this used to be ₹5 crore. The ministry has also designed brand new wagons for automobile transportation, these can carry SUVs over two decks.  

  The earlier design allowed only the lower deck to carry an SUV, due to height restrictions. The newly designed wagons are made out of repurposed ICF coaches of the railways.

  “Auto ancillaries and spares have been permitted to be carried in both onward and return directions. Requirement for procurement of maintenance of spare wagons has been reduced from 4 per cent per rake to 4 per cent of the total cumulative holding,” said the official. 

  “Moreover, all Container Terminals have been permitted to deal in automobile traffic,” the official added. 

According to data, the railways has created six new automobile handling terminals in recent years.