Kolkata, Nov 28 (IANS) Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Saturday laid the foundation stone for an automobile transit hub in West Bengal’s Howrah district and announced that nine other such complexes will be developed in other states on land belonging to the railways.
“In consultation with SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers), the railway department has zeroed in on 10 locations to construct such hubs across the country,” Banerjee said at Shalimar in Howrah district.

SIAM is the apex automobile industry body representing 44 leading vehicle and vehicular engine manufacturers in the country.

Besides Shalimar, automobile transit hubs would come up at Siliguri, Guwahati, Chennai, Pune, Nashik, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Delhi, as also in Kerala.

“I have told them to put up a hub in every zone. This will help create more business opportunities and employment,” Banerjee said.

According to her, the effects of the economic slowdown can be minimised and the economy will even get a boost if more automobile companies take part in this project.

Representatives of automobile companies like Tata Motors, Hyundai Motor India, Hero Honda and Maruti Suzuki were present at the stone-laying ceremony.

The hubs will function as transit points for cars and motorcycles that would be brought to the states by train before being ferried to different showrooms.

With this project, the railways plan to tap the business opportunity of transporting automobiles from factories to different parts of the country before they finally reach the showrooms.

“This project will be good for railways as well as the transport sector,” Banerjee said.

“After a dedicated freight corridor is completed four-five years down the line, these hubs will flourish and generate lots of employment opportunities.”

She said ferrying automobiles through the rail route would help in saving shipment time and reduce pollution.

“This will help the railways generate around Rs.1,000 crore revenue annually,” the minister said.

The transit hubs will change the socio-economic conditions of the places where they will come up, she said.

“We (Railways) have 112,000 acres (of land) in our possession that we are looking forward to using commercially,” the minister pointed out.