Maruti Suzuki Crosses 10 Lakh Rail Dispatches — Gujarat Siding Leads India's Green Logistics Push

One Million Cars Moved by Rail — and Gujarat Did Most of It

Maruti Suzuki India has crossed 10 lakh cumulative vehicle dispatches through the in-plant railway sidings at its Hansalpur plant in Gujarat and its Manesar plant in Haryana, becoming the first and only passenger vehicle maker in India with dedicated rail terminals inside its factories. Of the total, around 7.9 lakh vehicles have moved through the Gujarat siding — the bulk of the milestone — while Manesar, which began operations later, has contributed about 2.1 lakh.

The milestone was reached three years and five months after the Gujarat siding opened. In the current financial year up to 31st August, Maruti's rail-based dispatches have already crossed 3 lakh vehicles, with the two in-plant sidings handling 70 per cent of that. An in-plant siding lets freshly built cars roll straight from the assembly line onto trains, removing the truck journey to the nearest loading terminal and cutting fuel use, greenhouse gas emissions and road congestion in one move — infrastructure developed under the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan.

Managing Director and CEO Hisashi Takeuchi called the million-unit mark a "landmark achievement in our green logistics journey". The bigger picture is in the mix: rail accounted for just 5 per cent of Maruti's vehicle dispatches in 2014-15, a share that has grown to 26.5 per cent in 2025-26, with a mid-term target of 35 per cent by 2030-31 as a third in-plant siding comes up at the new Kharkhoda facility in Haryana. Cumulatively, the company has moved more than 33 lakh vehicles by rail since 2014-15, the rest through external loading terminals.

What This Means For You

Logistics rarely makes headlines, but it shapes ownership: rail dispatches reduce transit damage and delivery delays, and higher plant utilisation on the back of smoother despatches keeps waiting periods — and eventually costs — in check. For buyers in Gujarat, the Hansalpur plant's scale is a quiet reminder of how much of India's car production now flows out of the state.

(Sources: Maruti Suzuki India press release, 19 September 2026, via DeshGujarat. Images: Wikimedia Commons — BCACBM car carrier wagon of Indian Railways, CC BY-SA 4.0; current-generation Suzuki Swift, CC BY-SA 4.0.)