Central Railway has bagged more business from Mahindra & Mahindra to transport the automobile maker’s cars to various parts of India.
One to one meeting conducted with M/s Mahindra and Mahindra resulted in more loading of automobiles. They have also first and last-mile connectivity for delivering the vehicles. This mode cuts down the time taken to transport its newly built vehicles from its plants to dealers in various cities across the country.
Central Railway has transported automobiles in 18 rakes in July 2020. Railway officials say that bulk transport of automobiles by trains is also environmentally friendly and cost-effective.
Automobiles are transported in dedicated rakes. An average rake can carry 118 vehicles. A specially designed BCACBM rake can carry approximately 300 vehicles.
Maharashtra’s automobile hubs: significant potential for business for Indian Railways
Maharashtra is a big automobile hub, where Mahindra, Tata, Ford, Piaggio, Bajaj etc are manufacturing vehicles near Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur and Aurangabad areas. There is a vast potential to carry automobiles manufactured in Maharashtra to different parts of the country.
BDU meetings with M/s Tata Motors and other automobile companies have been held. M/s Maruti has also transported 1.78 lakh cars across the country by using freight trains in this financial year from its 5 loading terminals to 13 destination terminals including Nagpur and Mumbai.
Business Development Units (BDU) formed to increase the rail share in the goods /parcel sector have mapped the data of inward and outward material both industry and sector-wise.
At present, Indian Railways uses New Modified Goods (NMG) rakes and privately owned BCACBM rakes for automobile transportation. Movement of these rakes is being monitored closely to reduce the turnaround time and subsequently making these rakes available for next loading has elicited customer satisfaction.
Other Commodities
Similarly, CR has transported agro-based fertilizer (potash) manufactured from molasses alcohol waste for the first time from Daund.
New traffic of wheat loading from Betul and Multai stations on Nagpur Division, maize from Khandwa and Paras; husk from Chalisgaon on Bhusaval Division has started. Other commodities targeted by the Central Railway are fly-ash, cotton, etc. A quantum jump in onion loading including export to Bangladesh has also been achieved.