The Ministry of Railways has increased car transport fares for most of the latest car transport wagons, a Business Standard investigation has learned. This is in contrast to the government’s efforts to become India’s most preferred motor carrier.
These fees go into effect Friday and will remain in effect until May 2024.
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After keeping the tolls unchanged for two years to attract more traffic, the Railway Board will revise tolls for vehicles transported in regular and high-speed New Improved Freight (NMG) wagons, according to a notification dated November 30. decided to do so. The state transport company had announced in 2022 that the 2021 fare revisions were made to encourage short-distance car travel.
Railways typically charge separate fares for every 50 kilometers, increasing fares on different scales depending on the distance a car unit travels.
For example, fares for distances up to 100 kilometers have been increased by 26 per cent, meaning that rail transport over that distance will cost around Rs 9,700 for a van.
Similarly, transport charges for vehicles between 150 km and 600 km have been increased by 11 percent. Vehicle units between 651 and 1,200 kilometers now cost about 8 percent more to transport, and for long distances (1,351 kilometers to about 2,000 kilometers or more), automakers’ costs will now be about 4 percent higher.
However, the fares for BCACM wagons, which run parallel to BCACBM wagons for double-decker transport of four-wheelers, will not change.
Although exact data on four-wheeled vehicles is not available, the average distance for a single transport of miscellaneous goods (the amount of goods transported by a motor vehicle) on railways this fiscal year is 729 km.
The first high-speed NMG wagons will be rolled out by 2021 by converting Integral Coach Factory passenger cars into goods wagons, with one wagon capable of carrying three to four four-wheelers depending on the size of the unit. can.
Railways has aimed to become the top transporter in this sector, with a 16% share of the total four-wheeler transport in the country in 2021-2022.
Last-mile issues and rake design concerns have long plagued the industry, but the polluting nature of road transport is prompting many automakers to consider moving to rail. Maruti Suzuki India has become a leading automaker in this supply chain change.
In August, the country’s largest automaker announced plans to double rail traffic over the next three years from the 335,000 cars it transported in 2022-23.
We contacted automakers such as Maruti Suzuki India, Tata Motors, Hyundai Motor India and Mahindra & Mahindra that use rail networks to transport their vehicles, but at the time of publishing this report, they did not immediately respond. No response was received.