CR moving cars by train to reduce carbon footprint

Nagpur: In a bid to achieve ‘net zero’ carbon emission mass transportation network by 2030, Indian Railways have taken decisive steps by despatching cars to different parts of India thereby saving fuel and earning carbon credits.
As a part of this mission, Central Railway, in coordination with automobile companies like Mahindra & Mahindra, has started business development units (BDUs) to increase share of railways in goods and parcel sector.
“One to one meeting conducted with Mahindra & Mahindra has resulted in more loading of automobiles. They also have first and last mile connectivity for delivering the vehicles. This mode cuts down the time taken to transport their newly built vehicles from plants to dealers in cities across the country,” said CR chief public relations officer (CPRO) Shivaji Sutar.
“Automobiles are transported in dedicated rakes. One such rake can carry 118 vehicles while a car carrier rake, new high capacity railway wagons, can carry approximately 300 vehicles,” he added.
At present, railways uses new modified goods rakes and privately owned car carrier rakes for transportation of cars. Close monitoring of these rakes to reduce turnaround time and make the rakes available for next loading has resulted in customer satisfaction, he said.
Maharashtra is a big automobile hub, where Mahindra, Tata, Ford, Piaggio, Bajaj etc are manufacturing vehicles near Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur and Aurangabad.
“There is a vast potential to carry automobiles manufactured in Maharashtra to different parts of the country. We have held BDU meetings with Tata Motors and other car makers,” said Sutar.
Maruti has also transported 1.78 lakh cars using freight trains in this financial year from its five loading terminals to 13 destination terminals including Nagpur and Mumbai.
Central Railway has transported automobiles in 18 rakes in July 2020. Similarly, it has transported agro-based fertilizer (potash) manufactured from molasses alcohol waste for the first time from Daund near Pune.
“New traffic of wheat loading from Betul and Multai stations under Nagpur division, maize from Khandwa and Paras, husk from Chalisgaon in Bhusawal division has already started,” he said.
Earlier, other commodities targeted by the Central Railway included fly-ash, cotton etc. A quantum jump in onion loading including export to Bangladesh has also been achieved. Central Railway has appealed to customers to join hands and participate in cutting carbon footprint.