Maruti Suzuki Transports 24 Cars Using Inland Waterways

In a first in the country, India's largest automobile manufacturer Maruti Suzuki successfully transported 24 of its cars to Garden Reach Jetty II of IWTA (Inland Water Transport Authority) in Kolkata from Varanasi. The vessel called “M V VV Giri,”and belonging to the government authority IWTA, was flagged off by the union minister of transport, highways and shipping Nitin Gadkari on August 12, 2016. The shipment took six days to reach its destination in Kolkata.

“It is purely an experimental shipment of a Maruti Suzuki consignment. But at the end of the 1,210km-long trip, the collective impact was very positive. Maruti does not even need to take the cars to its own warehouse but straight to dealers. We are allowing transporters to use IWTA warehouses and keep their consignments for seven days at free of cost”, said Arvind Kumar, additional director at IWTA.

“It is such a hassle-free trip that more and more business groups are approaching us for transporting their consignments through national waterway-1. The draft has been no issue. For a trial run, we brought only 24 cars. But the same vessel can easily carry 200 cars. More we carry, cheaper will be the transportation cost. Now Hyundai has also approached us for its shipment”, said Captain Solanki of IWTA.

Courtesy of the Inland Waterways Bill that was passed recently, more than 100 rivers throughout the nation will be christened and converted to various National Waterways. The feat achieved by IWTA and Maruti collectively was over the river Ganga. The total stretch of waterbodies in India adds to a staggering 14,500km. But not all is accessible for vessels capable to transport cars. The usable figure is 9,200km, which comprises of 5,200km of rivers and 4,000km of canals across the country.

India is currently confined to about 5 per cent of the total transportation for vehicles through waterways. On the other hand, countries like China and Korea make use of their waterways for transportation of vehicles more extensively, which contribute to about 40 per cent of the total vehicle logistics.