The construction of Siemens’ bogie manufacturing facility at Aurangabad, its third such plant across the globe, is over and it is ready to begin production. The other two plants are in Austria and the US.
Aditya Chaturvedi, managing director, Siemens Rolling Stock Pvt Ltd, said, “We have invested around Rs 200 crore for setting up the manufacturing unit. The market for railway business is showing strong growth potential in Asia and with India working on developing dedicated freight and high-speed passenger corridors, Aurangabad seemed a good place to set shop in.”
Initially, the facility would be utilised for producing components meant for export. Siemens, Austria, has offloaded a portion of the contract it had got for delivering 108 bogies for Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation to the Aurangabad unit. Meantime, Chaturvedi informed, negotiations are on with Indian Railways for producing high-speed bogies for dedicated passenger corridors.
The new facility has the required capability to produce bogies for locomotives, passenger bogies, electric multiple units and metro rail lines. The technological back-up is being provided by the facility at Graz, Austria.
Chaturvedi, while declining to specify a price line for the products, said: “We will cater to customers’ demands with highly-localised and customised products at competitive rates. All products will be designed keeping in mind Indian track conditions.”
The unit, spread over 15 acres, has a capacity to make 800 bogies on an annual basis. Depending on demand, the capacity can be expanded to manufacture 1,400 bogies per annum at the facility.
According to a study done by UNIFE, the association representing over 900 companies in the European rail industry, the railway business worldwide would grow at three per cent over the next 10 years to reach a size of Euro 111 billion by 2020. The market in Asia would, however, grow at a faster annual rate of seven per cent.
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