Honda two-wheelers India makes logistics gains with inland waterway route in Gujarat

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) today announced that the company has adopted the inland waterway route in Gujarat to transport its newly-produced two-wheelers.

HMSI despatched its first consignment of two-wheelers from its South India plant located inNarsapura, Karnataka to the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, which was then transported between Surat and Bhavnagar using the newly-inaugurated Hazira-Ghogha inland ferry route.

HMSI leveraged transport services of 3PL operator – Indigo Seaways – and claims to have observed a reduction of two days in the total transit time from its plant to the destination city of Bhavnagar, Gujarat, located in the Gulf of Khambhat, with the inland waterway route cutting down distance by up to 465km within Gujarat.

The Hazira-Ghogha Ro-Pax route was thrown open by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8, and HMSI says it is faster, more cost-efficient and also environment-friendly to be curtailing carbon emissions by up to 311kg per trip.

According to Yadvinder Singh Guleria, director, Sales and Marketing, HMSI, “At Honda we believe we have a responsibility to apply our innovations, technologies and initiatives to improve the lives of people while minimising the environmental impacts of our products and business operations to ensure a sustainable future for society. Utilising the newly-inaugurated inland waterways as the premiere auto company to ship its consignments, we have been able to significantly reduce the transit time and serve our customers with increased efficiency across 11 cities of the Saurashtra region in Gujarat.”

“At the same time, as an ecologically superior means of transport, the Ro-Pax service is reducing our carbon footprint significantly. Honda aims to continuously deliver its shipments from Bangalore plant to Saurashtra region utilising Ro-Pax ferry service,” Guleria added.

Before availing benefits of this new route, HMSI, in 2018, had already made a switch in shipping logistics through inland waterways, leveraging the Dahej-Ghogha Ro-Pax ferry service. The route has served the purpose to bring speed, efficiency and ecological benefits to the company’s shipments especially from its Karnataka plant. HMSI says it despatched a total of 19,200 units of two-wheelers between 2018 and 2020, using the Dahej-Ghogha route, resulting in savings of approximately one day in transit time per consignment, and an average cost saving of 4 percent. The estimated CO2 reduction for the lot stands at 101,304kg.

Captain D K Manral, CEO Indigo Seaways, commented, “Globally, Ro-Pax services are most popular in advanced countries and continents which have vast and large number of oceans and inland waterways. Primarily, these ferries either cut short the distance through sea route or divert traffic from over congested highways to under-utilised sea ways.”

“This ferry is the gateway to South Gujarat and Saurashtra region, and has eliminated the road distance between Ghogha and Hazira to a quarter, reducing the current transit time of 10-12 hours to a mere four hours. More importantly, it would reduce CO2 emission by 24 Tons/day and 8,653 Tons/ annually. The greenhouse gases thus saved would have substantial positive impact on climatic change.”