As the automotive industry gets back to normal production rate, manufacturers are increasingly using Indian Railways for transporting the vehicles. As a result Indian Railways is witnessing record freight loading with its rakes being used by companies like Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors and Hyundai, MG Motors and Kia. Automobile loading by railways which had fell to its lowest level of just two rakes in April 2020 has now reversed and the loading has increased progressively to 33 rakes in May, 112 rakes in June, 159 rakes in July, 243 rakes in August and 287 rakes in September. The auto loading volume in September 2020 was 120 percent higher than that in the same month last year.
According to the Railway Board, IR’s share for transporting small passenger vehicles has shot up from about 4.5 percent in FY18 to about 14 percent
in July 2020 and this may increase to 20 percent by FY22 and 30 percent by FY24.
Officials attribute the increase in use of railway rakes for transporting automobiles to “proactive approach” of Railways, increase in rolling stock and sharp decline in transit time. However, the current spike could also be due to the relative ease and safety that transportation by rail offers, given the Covid-19 protocol.
The percentage share of IR in Tata Motors’ automobile transportation has risen from low single digit level to above 10 percent over the past four months. Mahindra is also seeing a big spurt in transport of vehicles by rail. “In Q2FY21, M&M has dispatched an average of 38 rakes per month against an average of 13 per month in Q2FY20. In three years, we plan to facilitate 22 percent of our dispatch through train from the current level of 12 percent,” said Veejay Nakra, CEO for automotive division, M&M.
The cumulative loading of 836 rakes in the April - September of 2020-21 has surpassed the loading of 731 rakes in the same period of 2019-20. Currently, IR operates two types of rakes — small rake which can carry 100-125 cars and a big rake which can carry 275 to 318 cars. Expansion of tracks, regular maintenance work, measures to enhance freight capacity and speed of trains, exemption of automobile traffic from payment of terminal charges, freeze on haulage charges and opening up of seven new terminals for automobile traffic at various zones are turning IR into an attractive proposition for the auto sector, the officials said. (Source: Financial Express)
