Tuesday, August 23, 2016
By Kriti Gupta
MSIL to extend its reach into remote areas through railways
With an objective to make its reach into remote areas of different regions across the country, leading car maker Maruti Suzuki India Limited is speculating to acquire the services of Indian Railways. At present the Indo-Japanese car maker transports about five percent of its vehicles through railways. But now to enhance the percentage of its sales throughout the country it is planning to make effective use of railway network. At present the car maker makes use of Gurgaon railway for transporting its vehicles to Bengaluru and Mundra depots from where they are further dispatched to various dealers via loading trucks.
According to sources of MSIL, "Depending on improved speed, turnaround time, infrastructure and connectivity, more destinations would be developed in west, east and northeast to enhance car availability in far-flung regions." To begin the transportation of vehicles through railways network company has developed three flexi-deck auto wagon rakes in collaboration with Research Design and Standards Organization of Railways by making an investment of Rs. 50. Crore. With this it has also succeeded in receiving an automobile freight licence from the authorities of railways. With this licence it has become the first car manufacturer in country to acquire such licence for transportation of its vehicles.
The flexi deck auto wagon rake developed by MSIL is capable of carrying about 318 cars at a time, this figure is 20% extra from its existing efficiency of transporting its cars through dual decker rakes. Not only this the three rake wagon moves at the speed of 95 kmph whereas the twindecker moved at the speed of 65 kmph. Interestingly the new rakes even deliver less carbon emission also.
It would be interested to know that MSIL’s tough contender HMIL has refused to comment on its future plans regarding transportation of its vehicles through railways. According to industry experts, transporting vehicles through railways costs about 10-15 percent lesser than compared to transporting vehicles through road. Moreover rail transport also protects goods from getting damaged.
The video displayed below reveals unloading of cars from auto wagon developed by MSIL and authorities of railways.
