Maruti Suzuki has achieved a key environmental milestone by being the first automobile company in India to ship two million vehicles using railroads in total.
In FY 2014–15, the corporation sent out 65,700 automobiles via railroads; by FY 2023–24, that figure had risen to 447,750 vehicles.
Vehicle transit via rail is less congested, safer, and more energy-efficient than via the road. Currently, the company uses Indian railways to transport cars to 20 destinations, catering to over 450 locations.
Hisashi Takeuchi, Managing Director and CEO, Maruti Suzuki India Limited said that Maruti Suzuki 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 licence.
They have consistently worked to promote green logistics, and they have seen several successes along the way, including a decrease in CO2 emissions of almost 10,000 metric tonnes and a total savings of more than 270 million gasoline gallons. Over the next seven to eight years, they plan to expand the amount of cars dispatched by railroads to approximately 35 per cent, with production capacity estimated to almost quadruple from 2 million to 4 million units by FY 2030–31.
At Maruti Suzuki’s Gujarat plant, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India’s first car in-plant railway siding earlier this year as part of the PM Gati Shakti initiative. About 300,000 vehicles can be dispatched from this facility annually. As stated in the news release, the Manesar facility is currently working on the next in-plant railway siding, which is expected to be operational shortly.