Now Reading: Maruti Suzuki first to dispatch vehicles by rail to Pollachi terminal
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Maruti Suzuki first to dispatch vehicles by rail to Pollachi terminal
Maruti Suzuki India has become the first passenger vehicle manufacturer to dispatch vehicles by rail to the Pollachi Railway Terminal in Tamil Nadu. A rake carrying 120 vehicles, including models like Wagon…
Maruti Suzuki India has become the first passenger vehicle manufacturer to dispatch vehicles by rail to the Pollachi Railway Terminal in Tamil Nadu. A rake carrying 120 vehicles, including models like Wagon R, Ertiga, Dzire, and Celerio, was flagged off from the company's Manesar in-plant railway siding on August 18.
The company worked with Indian Railways to operationalise the terminal for rail-based dispatches, adding to its Southern India destinations alongside Coimbatore. The Pollachi Railway Terminal is expected to support nearly 70 automobile rakes annually, enabling delivery of over 11,000 additional vehicles each year through railways to the region.
Maruti Suzuki adopted rail-based dispatches in FY 2014-15 to cut CO2 emissions and reduce road congestion. The share of rail in its outbound dispatches has risen from 5% then to 26.5% in FY 2025-26, with over 32 lakh vehicles dispatched cumulatively. The company aims to increase that share to 35% by FY 2030-31.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The shift to rail addresses two structural bottlenecks for automakers in India: chronic road congestion on highways and high diesel costs for trucking. Maruti Suzuki's target of 35% rail dispatch by 2030-31, if met, would cut about 8-10% of its logistics-related carbon footprint, based on Indian Railways' own emission-per-tonne figures. The Pollachi terminal, one of 20 stations upgraded under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, also opens a new freight corridor into Tamil Nadu's interior markets, bypassing the congested Coimbatore hub. The real test for rail logistics will come during the festival peak, when Maruti typically dispatches over 1.5 lakh vehicles in a month and must prove the terminal can handle the surge without delays. The next milestone to watch is the company's quarterly logistics disclosure, due by October, which will show whether the rail share has moved from the current 26.5%.
Source: thehindubusinessline.com
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
