Maruti Suzuki starts rail operations at Manesar in-plant siding

Maruti Suzuki India has begun rail operations at its Manesar plant in the Indian state of Haryana, billed as the country’s largest in-plant railway siding with capacity to dispatch 450,000 vehicles a year. It is the carmaker’s second such in-plant rail siding, with one operating at its Gujurat plant since 2024, which has an annual dispatch capacity of 300,000. 

This month Maruti Suzuki reported that it moved 500,000 vehicles by rail in FY2024-2025, roughly a quarter of its total distribution across the year.

The Manesar rail operation covers 18.6 hectares inside the 243-hectare Manesar manufacturing facility, including four full length rail tracks (and one to divert engines) on a fully electrified corridor, in all equal to 8.2km of track. The siding also includes a two-storey station building, and a dedicated pathway for guards and drivers along the tracks. 

Vehicles manufactured at Manesar (and at the nearby Gurugram plant) will be dispatched from the new rail siding to 17 hubs across India, serving 380 cities. They can also be dispatched to the ports of Mundra and Pipavav for export overseas. 

The rail operation is managed by a public-private joint venture, Haryana Orbital Rail and forms part of the 126-km Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor (Horc) running from Sonipat to Palwal. Maruti Suzuki has invested INR 3,250m ($37,555) toward the corridor and INR 1,270m to in-plant yard development. The siding has been registered under the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan, a government initiative in India to integrate in infrastructure development across various ministries and departments to advance multimodal connectivity across the country. 

“We are very happy that India’s largest automobile in-plant railway siding is inaugurated today at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar facility,” said Hisashi Takeuchi, managing director and CEO of Maruti Suzuki India, at the official opening. “We are deeply grateful to the visionary leadership of the Honourable Union Minister for Railways and the Government of India’s focused implementation of seamless multimodal connectivity promoting green logistics.” 

The siding is estimated to save 175,000 tonnes of carbon emissions and 60m litres of fuel annually at full capacity. 

Maruti Suzuki India reports that it has dispatched 2.5m vehicles since 2014 when it started rail operations having secured the Automobile Freight Train Operator (Afto) licence for operations on the Indian Railways network. 

The Manesar plant has made more than 10m vehicles since it first started production in 2006. It currently makes the Brezza, Ertiga, XL6, Ciaz, Dzire, WagonR, S-Presso and Celerio models.