Maruti Suzuki Dispatches 5.18 Lakh Vehicles via Railways

New Delhi, Jun 5 (PTI) Maruti Suzuki India on Thursday said it has dispatched 5.18 lakh vehicles through Indian Railways in FY 2024-25, its highest-ever.

Around 24 lakh vehicles have been dispatched cumulatively through the Indian Railways since FY 2014-15, the car market leader said in a statement.

The automaker currently dispatches vehicles to more than 20 hubs through Indian Railways, from where over 600 cities across India are served, it stated.

Port locations of Mundra and Pipavav, used by the company for exports, are also served using railways, it added.

"Reducing carbon emissions is a top priority for us, both in our products and in our operations," Maruti Suzuki India MD & CEO Hisashi Takeuchi said.

Maruti Suzuki was the first company in India to obtain an automobile-freight-train-operator license, in 2013, he added.

"Since then, we have dispatched nearly 24 lakh vehicles through rail mode. By FY 2030-31, we plan to increase the share of vehicle dispatches through railways to 35 per cent," Takeuchi noted.

Currently, Maruti Suzuki operates over 40 flexi deck rakes, each with a capacity of carrying around 300 vehicles per trip, the company said.

The company said the initiative helped avoid over 1.8 lakh tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) emission and saved more than 630 lakh (63 million) litres of fuel.