Mamata Banerjee, India’s Railway Minister on 28th November’09, laid the foundation for the country's first ever automobile logistics hub at Shalimar in Howrah, while simultaneously announcing that similar hubs will be, over the coming time, set up at nine more places across the country.

Out of the 15 hubs, Banerjee says, "Two could come up in Santragachhi and Shalimar in West Bengal where the railways already have land to spare". The Indian Railways has offered its land to auto companies for setting up these hubs, which can also act as locations for auto ancillary industries. More than 20 lakh vehicles are manufactured in India every year; most of these are transported from production sites to cities by road. Only two per cent of vehicle transportation is carried out by the railways. This is in spite of the fact that rail transportation is safer and less time-consuming than road transportation. The establishment of the auto hubs is intended to increase such traffic to 15 per cent by 2015-16. Furthermore, representatives from the country's various major automobile manufacturers, including Maruti, TVS, Hyundai, Hero Honda and Tata Motors, were present at the function where the Minster said that if all goes according to the plan, the railways' share could go up-to as much as a whopping 50 per cent in the near future.

“After this, we will set up automobile hubs at Siliguri, Guwahati, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kerala, Bangalore and Delhi as a pilot project in collaboration with Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM)", Minister Banerjee said. Expected to generate revenue of Rs. 1,000 crore every year, the hub would serve as an area's main logistics station where automobiles from factories across the country would be brought together for the purpose of local distribution. If the automobile industry displays enough interest in the project, the Minister shared that similar hubs would steadily be constructed at all major railway zones across the country.

In Phase-I, auto hubs would be set up at Santragachi, Shalimar, Siliguri, Ranchi, Guwahati, Patna and Hosur (Karnataka). Another eight hubs would eventually be put up in Phase-II of the project at Ernakulum, Vijayawada, Delhi cantonment, Chandigarh, Palakkad, Kharagpur, Challapalli and Kalamassery. Media reports suggest that automobiles would be transported to and fro these hubs via four and eight-car wagons. These hubs are likely to be revenue generating projects aimed at ensuring development in the automobile sector in line with the various ventures that were being taken to make the railways one of the key factors of the country's economic growth.

"The Railways would provide the land and private players would set up the units under Public-Private Partnership," Banerjee was quoted as speaking to PTI, adding that while the railways would provide land for constructing the hubs and the facilities would be set up by private sector players. Banerjee, who is betting big on the project, points out that the shifting of a considerable chunk of vehicles from road to railways would also help bring down pollution levels and fetch carbon credits for the railways. These auto hubs would not only serve as vendor parks, but also have assembling units where components can be put together before cars are transported to sales centres. The railways have also rolled out 10 rakes of two-tiered high-capacity wagons on a pilot basis to transport cars.

A senior official at the rail ministry was quoted as saying to ‘The Business Standard’ “The establishment of these hubs will facilitate economic development of the areas where they are set up. The units will provide employment to the local people and also act as a revenue-generating source for railways. The Railways expect to earn around Rs 1,500 crore per annum from these automobile hubs.”

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