In a bid to reduce carbon footprint, Maruti Suzuki, the country’s largest car maker shipped over 3.2 lakh vehicles by railways in the calendar year 2022 – this is the highest-ever dispatch using rail mode by the Company in a calendar year.

The move has offset around 1800 MT of Co2 emission in the last calendar year and saved over 50 million litres of fuel – claimed the company.

Hisashi Takeuchi, Managing Director & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India Limited said, aligned with the Government of India’s aim to reach net zero emissions by 2070, the company has enhanced its efforts to reduce carbon footprint in its business operations.

“Going forward, we aim to further increase these numbers. For this, we are setting up dedicated railway sidings at our facilities in Haryana (Manesar) and Gujarat,” assured the MD.

In the last 10 years, the company has seen a five-fold increase in railway dispatches in terms of volumes. Share of railways in outbound logistics has increased from 5% in 2013 to 17% in 2022. The Company has transported over 1.4 million vehicles using railways in the last 10 years, which has resulted in offsetting over 6,600 MT CO2 emissions.

Maruti Suzuki is India’s first automobile manufacturer to obtain an Automobile Freight Train Operator (AFTO) license in 2013. This license allows the Company to fabricate and operate high speed, high capacity auto wagon rakes on the Indian Railways network, claimed the company.

Maruti Suzuki uses 40 specially designed railway rakes to transport vehicles across the country. Each rake has a capacity to carry 300+ vehicles. Presently, it utilizes 7 loading terminals across Delhi-NCR and Gujarat and 18 destination terminals  - Bangalore, Nagpur, Mumbai, Guwahati, Mundra Port, Indore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Delhi-NCR, Siliguri, Coimbatore, Pune, Agartala, Silchar, Ranchi and Ludhiana.