Updated by admin on
Tuesday, March 01, 2016 07:43 PM IST
Walajabad:
Union Minister of Railways, Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, inaugurated the Rail Auto Hub at Walajabad near Kancheepuram through video conference from Rail Bhavan, New Delhi on March 1, 2016.
Vashishta Johri, General Manager, Southern Railway, S. Anantharaman, Chief Operations Manager, Southern Railway, Ajeet Saxena, Chief Commercial Manager, Southern Railway, S.S. Gupta, Principal Chief Engineer, Southern Railway, Anupam Sharma, Divisional Railway Manager, Chennai Division and senior officials and staff of Southern Railway were present at Walajabad during the function. Moreover, Anand, Senior General Manager, Hyundai, Ramachandran, General Manager, Hyundai, K.V. Rao, Senior Manager, Hyundai and Mohanraj, APL Logistics Vascor Automotive Pvt. Ltd. also attended the function.
It was announced in Railway Budget, 2016 that India’s first rail auto hub in Chennai will be inaugurated soon. Within a few days of that announcement, the rail auto hub at Walajabad has been inaugurated today.
Walajabad station is being developed as the first common-user originating rail Auto- Hub on Indian Railways. Located in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu, the station is located conveniently at 12 – 40 kilometres away from the major hubs of Oragadam, Sriperumbudur and Singaperumal Kovil areas housing the manufacturing facilities of M/s Nissan, M/s Hyundai, M/s Ford, M/s Daimler Chrysler and others.
This hub would cater to the over 1 million units of 4-wheelers being produced per annum in these areas. Also, Walajabad Auto Hub would act as an ideal distribution centre for the inward traffic of M/s TATA, M/s Honda, etc. converging for distribution into Tamil Nadu and adjoining states, including Puducherry.
With an initial holding capacity of over 300 4-wheelers, this rail hub has seamless road connectivity of 4 / 6 lanes to the production and consumption centres.
Adequate lighting and fencing for security are also on the anvil.
It takes 36 hours to move one load of 6 cars from the factory to the port through trucks due to congestion and time restrictions. From this facility, 300 cars can be moved to Chennai Port and Ennore Port in 2 – 3 hours.
The initial stacking area of 5,000 sq.m. will be extended to 20,000 sq.m. as common user stacking area. Apart from common user facility, additional 8 acres of land is available with railway at this location to facilitate the long term stacking of automobiles on commercial licensing of storage space.
Phase – I of the hub would be ready to handle the first auto-carrying train during March, 2016. Phase – II including the CC-pavement of over 5,000 sq.m. is at tendering stage and is due for completion in the next four months.
While hinterland traffic is the prime segment, Southern Railway intends to capture the considerable export market on offer from the Ports of Chennai and Ennore, through competitive pricing.
