A mega rail auto hub is likely to come up at the Singaperumalkoil station near Chengalpet, about 13 kms from #HiranandaniParks, Chennai’s first satellite township.
It will be the second rail auto hub in India after Walajabad station near Kancheepuram and will transform infrastructure, civic amenities and accelerate the growth of neighborhoods in and around Singaperumalkoil & Oragadam.
The Southern Railway (SR) decided to go ahead with the project after witnessing a steep 60 percent jump in revenues from the auto sector last year.
Global auto giants who run huge automobile manufacturing facilities in and around Sriperumbudur currently use trains to transport cars to the Northeast, Gujarat and North India as well as to Chennai and Ennore Port for exports.
Ennore Port which is home to an automobile unloading facility handles around 1.7 lakh cars every year and is well connected to all parts of the city and suburbs.
These auto majors are forced to use the congested roads to transport cars from their factories to the port which is time-consuming and costly. The auto hub in Walajabad station is almost 130 kms from these factories.
The Singaperumalkoil station is only 76 km from the Ennore Port and is on the Chennai Beach-Chengalpet section. It is only 2.5k m from Ford’s facility and around 10 km from Renault’s plant.
A report in The Times of India opined that the distance of the auto hub from the final unloading point is rather significant. “This is because for transporting every car, Railways charges auto companies Rs 2,081 for distances over 100 km. This comes down to Rs 1,724 per car for distances below 100 km. Every rake (formation of train wagons) carries around 300-310 cars, which would translate into a lower transportation cost for the car manufacturer,” the report noted.
While Walajabad falls on a single line section, three tracks run through Singaperumalkoil making it easier to load the vehicles on to rakes without disrupting passenger train traffic.
The second rail auto hub will lead to massive growth in real estate, public transport systems along with a robust civic eco-system that will be home to shopping and entertainment malls, schools, colleges, and hospitals.