Ahmedabad/Bharuch: Honda 2Wheelers has become the first company to use Ghogha-Dahej Roll on, Roll off (Ro-Ro) ferry services in Gujarat for transportation of its shipment.

Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. Yadvinder Singh Guleria today informed this.

With the advantage of the services, Honda 2Wheelers India has first dispatched its shipment by road from its Narsapura plant in Karnataka to Dahej in South Gujarat, where it was put on the ro-ro vessel and transported to Ghogha in Saurashtra. The shipment arrived at Honda dealership in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, he said.

The Ro-Ro Ghogha-Dahej ferry service will reduce the time of travel from Narsapura plant to Saurashtra by 1 day and the distance would be reduced to over 200 kms. Contributing to environment conservation, the usage of this service will also cut down the carbon emissions by approx. 150 kg per trip, he added.

Aiming to increase the penetration of Honda 2Wheelers to cater the ever growing demand in Saurashtra region of Gujarat, this ferry service shall further leverage company’s distribution potential in the region with speed, Guleria said.

Honda is the first 2Wheeler manufacturer in industry to utilise this service for promoting inland waterways as transportation channel and thus reducing carbon emissions caused by heavy vehicles on land.

In Gujarat, Honda 2Wheelers India operates its fourth production plant located at Vithalapur area near Ahmedabad. The plant, the largest scooter manufacturing facility across the world, currently produces 1.2 million units annually. Recently, the company has also announced to build a new production line within the existing plant site. The new production line will add 0.6 million units and increase the total annual production capacity of scooters only facility to 1.8 million units by the year 2020.

The second phase of the Ro-Ro service with a big vessel capable of carrying both passengers as well as cargo was started in October this year and was shut briefly due to technical snag to resume this month.

DeshGujarat