Wagons are additionally set to be redesigned because the railways look to capitalise on the rising reputation of SUVs.
In response to officers conscious of the matter, the brand new charges for transporting SUVs is 33% decrease than the present prices for transferring giant passenger autos. “There was a requirement from car transporters to rationalise charges since demand for big automobiles has risen within the Indian market,” a high railways official informed ET. SUVs have turn out to be the fad with the share of such autos rising to 49% within the home passenger automobile market in calendar 12 months 2023. As compared, the share of small automobiles, as soon as the dominant class, fell to about 30% in the identical interval.
Till now, the railways charged loading prices for each higher and decrease decks even when only one deck was used for ferrying autos. The official stated the newest change in fee seeks to handle this. Usually, a Bi-level Auto Automobile wagon sort (BCACBM) is used for transporting automobiles. It may load one automobile (lower than 1.6 metres in peak) every within the higher and decrease deck. Nonetheless, just one giant automobile, popularly referred to as a SUV and taller than 1.6 metres, may be safely loaded in such a wagon. A prepare of 27 wagons can carry both 318 small automobiles or 135 SUVs. India technically defines SUVs as these being longer than 4 meters, having an engine capability of a minimum of 1,500 cc, and 170 mm floor clearance. Nonetheless, Indian Railways classes autos as per whole peak. Underneath the brand new tariff regime, a SUV loaded in a single deck shall be carried as much as 100-kilometre distance for Rs 11,719, down from Rs 17,579 in BCACBM wagons.
Maruti Suzuki, Transport Company of India (TCI), APL Vascor, Adani NYK, IVC Logistics and Joshi Konoike have secured Vehicle Freight Transport Operator (AFTO) licences, which allows them to transfer passenger autos on Indian Railways. Over a fifth of all passenger autos produced within the nation at the moment are transported by means of railways, a five-fold enhance since FY18 as firms take a look at cost-efficient modes of transportation. The Railways additionally plans to introduce wagons with design adjustments to facilitate environment friendly transport. “Auto Automobile Taller wagon (ACT1) will quickly be rolled out for transporting SUVs in each decks.,” the official stated.
