Even while transporting people and goods in large quantities across great distances, railways remain the least emission-intensive mode. In our country, the Indian Railway plays a vital role in passenger transport and more than a fifth of vehicles made in the country are moved through this mode.

Considering that rail transport is green, it is slowly becoming the one of the preferred modes in India. This is evident as two automobile giants Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai are among the top market players who use railways for dispatching the cars they manufacture.

In the financial year 2022-23 Maruti Suzuki dispatched over 14.9 lakh vehicles using the rail mode thereby cumulatively averting 6,700 metric tonnes of carbon emissions. Compared to FY 2015 when just 65,700 units were transported, in FY 2023 a total of 335,245 units were moved. This is a five-fold jump in a span of 8 years.

Interestingly, in FY 2023, Maruti dispatched more than 100,000 units more than 2022 FY. This marks an increase of nearly 43 percent in dispatches using the rail mode.

Sharing details about this, Rahul Bharti, Executive Officer, Corporate Affairs, Maruti Suzuki India said that the company had made sustained efforts to use railways for transporting cars because it is a far more efficient and optimal approach when compared to using roads. He said it helps in saving fuel, avoiding congestion on roads, and also cutdown on carbon emissions.

Apart from Maruti, Hyundai has also been using rail transport to export cars to Nepal and nearly 23 per cent the company’s total dispatches are via rail transport. Giving more details to the media, Tarun Garg, Chief Operating Officer of Hyundai Motor India said that for supplying their vehicles from the Sriperumbudur plant to dealers across the country, the company uses the extensive network of Indian Railways. He disclosed that nearly 23 per cent of the vehicles are transported via rail mode.