Indian Railways, Maruti Suzuki flag off flexi deck auto-wagon rake.

Car manufacturers have long been pushing for better methods to transport their cars by rail. Now Indian Railways and Maruti Suzuki flagged off a new high-capacity railway rake in Gurgaon recently. Named 'Flexi deck auto-wagon rake', it brings the advantages of higher capacity, flexibility, faster speed and environment friendliness to rail transportation of cars.

The flexi deck auto-wagon rake, designed by Indian Railway's Research Design and Standards Organization, has 20% additional capacity (318 cars) as compared to the current twin-decker rakes (265 cars), used for rail transportation.

The new rake, with its height adjustable middle-deck, is highly flexible and can transport vehicles of multiple dimensions. The new rake can move at speed of up to 95 km per hour as compared to 65 km per hour of the existing rakes. It can travel between Gurgaon and Bangalore in five days as compared to seven days by road transportation. Transporting cars by new flexi deck auto-wagon rake will lead to reduction in carbon emission making it more environment friendly.

THE TIMES OF INDIA