AHMEDABAD: The first train from
Gujarat carrying 125 cars from Maruti Suzuki plant from Detroj was dispatched for
Nidvanda Railway Station in Karnataka on Saturday.
Encouraged by the success, the railways are in talks with Ford to offer the company similar facilities to transport cars on trains from Sanand.
The Maruti Suzuki plant near Becharaji and Indian Railways have joined hands to transport Maruti’s cars to various parts of the country from Detroj.
The Maruti Suzuki plant situated near Becharaji station of
Patan district has a production capacity of approximately 2.5 lakh cars per annum.
Dinesh Kumar the divisional railway manager said “We are also in talks with Ford in Sanand to offer them a similar facility from the station at Sanand. According to the arrangement, the railways offers its land on lease to the company who develops the area according to requirement. However, the company cannot set up a permanent building on the area.”
“We have given around 8,000 sq m at an annual lease of Rs 4 lakh to Maruti,” added Kumar. He said the company has put paver blocks on the area.
The company has also tied up with a transport company which has specially designed rakes to transport 400 cars.
Kumar said that the Indian Railways has been replacing old coaches with Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches and the old coaches are being designed to suit automobile transportation. He said the transportation of cars by trains is expected to increase in the near future.
The train with 125 cars which left Detroj on Saturday will travel 1,716km to reach its destination. The loading of the cars started at 8am on Saturday and all the cars were loaded in less than four hours’ time.
Ravindar Bhakar chief public relations officer of
Western Railway, stated that for handling of rakes from Detroj station, the station was developed with minimum capital expenditure with the cooperation of Maruti Suzuki as a partner.
Railways will not only transport manufactured cars to all destinations of the country but also provide logistic solutions for export of vehicles. This initiative is a great beginning for the development of industry and for turning Gujarat state into a hub of car production.