Central Railway Transporting Automobiles from Maharashtra to Reduce Carbon Footprint

In a bid to reduce the carbon footprint of the country, particularly in the auto industry, Central Railway has teamed up with auto manufacturers to transport cars from production units to their respective destinations (auto dealerships). 

Cars are transported by the railway authorities using BCACBM-class trains that can carry up to 300 vehicles per wagon. There’s also a dedicated rake for automobile transportation that can carry around 118 vehicles per wagon at a time.  

Central Railway has mentioned that it transported a total of 18 trains containing automobiles in July 2020, particularly from companies like Mahindra & Mahindra. Additionally, Business Development Units (BDU) have been formed to increase the railways’ share in the goods and parcelling sector. It is said that the BDU is currently in talks with Tata Motors to help transport vehicles to their respective destinations. 

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Talking to Mid-Day, Chief Public Relations Officer of Central Railway, Shivaji Sutar said - “Railways have taken decisive steps to achieve 'Net Zero' carbon emission mass transportation network by 2030. As part of this mission, Central Railway in coordination with automobile companies like Mahindra & Mahindra has started loading cars to parts of India thereby saving precious fuel and earning carbon footprint.”

Central Railway is also capable of offering crucial last-mile connectivity to various cities of the country, which mostly include dealerships where the cars are put on display. By reducing dependency on fuel-based trucks, this move could also prove to save quite a bit of money and time for the automakers.

"Maharashtra is a big automobile hub, where Mahindra, Tata, Ford, Piaggio, Bajaj, etc are manufacturing vehicles near Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur and Aurangabad areas. There is a vast potential to carry automobiles manufactured in Maharashtra to different parts of the country," Sutar added.

Central Railway has also transported fertilizers like potash from Daund while essential grains like wheat have been loaded from Betul and Multai stations (Nagpur Division) and maize has been loaded from Khandwa and Paras, the officials said.