Maruti Suzuki India plans to utilize Indian Railways to transport 35% of its vehicles produced across its factories over the next 7-8 years, according to MD and CEO Hisashi Takeuchi. The share of vehicle dispatches through railways scaled to 21.5% in the 2023-24 fiscal from 5% in 2014-15.
The country’s largest carmaker’s vehicle dispatches through railways increased from 65,700 units in 2014-15 to 447,750 units in 2023-24. With production capacity nearly doubling from about 2 million units to 4 million units by FY 2030-31, Maruti Suzuki plans to augment the use of railways in vehicle dispatches to close to 35% over the next 7-8 years.
Maruti Suzuki has so far dispatched over 2 million units through Indian Railways. The automaker ferries vehicles to 20 destinations, serving over 450 cities using Indian railways. The company pioneered the use of railways for vehicle dispatches over a decade ago by becoming the first company in India to obtain the Automobile-Freight-Train-Operator license. Through sustained efforts in green logistics, Maruti Suzuki has achieved outstanding results including a cumulative reduction of 10,000 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions and 270 million litres of cumulative fuel savings.
The company stands committed to the country’s net zero emissions target by 2070. Earlier this year, under the PM Gati Shakti programme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the country’s first automobile in-plant railway siding at Maruti Suzuki’s Gujarat facility. This facility has a capacity to dispatch 300,000 vehicles per annum. The next in-plant railway siding is in progress at the company’s Manesar facility and will be operational soon, the automaker stated.
