Gandhinagar, March 26: The Western Railway has joined hands with automobile giant Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) to transport its cars anywhere in India. The transportation will take place by train from MSIL's plant in Gujarat to other parts of India. In a first such initiative, the Railways will transport Maruti cars to various parts of India, beginning from March 24.  “Auto Giant Maruti joins hands with National Transporter IR to transport its car to various parts of the country from Detroj in Gujarat. First such rake to roll on 24.3.2018”, the Western Railways said in a tweet.

As per reports, the first such train (rake) loaded with 125 Maruti-Suzuki cars in 25 NMG coaches left the Maruti plant in Detroj to Nidvanda in Bengaluru Division of South-Western Railway, a distance of 1m 716 km. Reports by IANS state that the entire consignment of cars was loaded in less than four hours, said WR Chief Spokesperson Ravinder Bhakar.

Maruti Suzuki Cars to be Transported Anywhere in India (Image: Twitter, @WesternRly)

Lauding the new freight loading initiative, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said, “From transporting autos to Amul butter, Indian Railways gives you the most economical, safe, timely and environment-friendly transportation. Adopt it today!” he tweeted.

 

The MSIL and Western Railways have developed a stacking area of 8000 square metres with a capacity to stack for handling up to two NMG rakes for the operation from Detroj. The tie-up of Indian Railways with MSIL is expected to benefit the carmaker’s new manufacturing facility near Becharji station in Patan district. The facility produces around 250,000 vehicles per annum, with plans to increase the production capacity in future.

The WR Chief Spokesperson was quoted by IANS saying that the WR will not only transport the manufactured cars to all destinations in the country but also provide logistic solutions for export of the vehicles. “This initiative is a great beginning for the development of industry and Gujarat state for making it a hub of car production in near future,” he added.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 26, 2018 06:44 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).