Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday laid the foundation stone for the country’s first automobile logistics hub near here and announced that nine more such centres will be set up at different places.
“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),” Ms. Banerjee said while laying the foundation stone near Shalimar railway station.
Stating that the hub would be a major logistics station where automobiles would be brought from factories across the country for local distribution, she said it was expected to generate a revenue of Rs 1,000 crore annually once it became operational.
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Similar hubs could be constructed in all railway zones across the country if the automobile industry evinced interest, she said.
Once these hubs became operational, the railways would be able to increase its revenue share from the automobile sector to 15 per cent from present two per cent. “This can go upto 50 per cent in future.”
Representatives from a number of automobile companies, including Maruti, TVS, Hyundai, Hero Honda and Tata Motors were present at the function.
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