Vaishnaw unveils largest automobile terminal at Maruti’s Manesar plant

Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday inaugurated the country’s largest automobile Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminal at Maruti Suzuki India Limited’s Manesar plant in Haryana.

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The Railway Ministry said it is a key infrastructure development that significantly enhances the logistics efficiency of automobile transportation.

“The Manesar facility is connected to Patli railway station through a 10 km dedicated rail link, which forms part of the 121.7 km Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor being developed by the Haryana Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation (HRIDC),” the ministry said in a release.

The construction of this 10 km link involved an investment of Rs 800 crore, with HRIDC contributing Rs 684 crore and the remaining amount funded by Maruti Suzuki.

The loading capacity of this Gati Shakti Cargo terminal is one of the highest in India ie 4.5 lakh automobiles per annum.

While addressing a gathering, Vaishnaw said that in the last two and a half years, a focused campaign has been launched to increase the number of general coaches, and more than 1,200 such coaches were added in just the past year.

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd expects vehicle dispatches through railways to increase to 35 per cent by 2030-31, its Managing Director and CEO Hisashi Takeuchi said.

“Maruti Suzuki pioneered the use of railways for vehicle dispatches over a decade ago by becoming the first company to obtain the automobile-freight-train-operator license in India, and since then, we have dispatched over twenty-five lakh passenger vehicles using railways,” Takeuchi said.

On the new terminal, Takeuchi added, “Now, we will be able to avoid an estimated 1.75 lakh tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emission and save 60 million litres of fuel annually.”