Bombardiers to pitch for Western Railway upgradation

The Western Railway (WR) is keen on revamping the rail traffic system to accommodate more trains to reduce peak hour congestion.

Last week, a two-member team from Bombardier International met with the officials of the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) and proposed several options for decongesting the peak hour rail traffic in the second phase of the MRVC's expansion plans for the city.

The proposal included automatic train safety solutions to decongest traffic during peak hours. According to the proposal, such a train protection system would enable the Western Railway to increase its capacity by 25 per cent.

"These systems can help reduce the headway between trains by 25-30 per cent. That means the system can accommodate another 250-300 trains without any additional track being laid," said Rajeev Jyoti, president, Bombardiers India.

Currently, suburban trains in Mumbai run every three and half minutes during peak hours. MRVC has been trying to reduce the time lapse to two and half minutes during peak hours.

In 2003, Bombardiers had installed the signalling system for Western Railway, which is among the largest signalling systems in the world, handling around 1,100 suburban trains a day.

Bombardiers India, which recently lost out to rivals Siemens on a Rs 1,000 crore deal to supply rakes to MRVC, is keen to expand its presence in the country. The company is also in talks with the railway ministry to get a piece of action for the Golden Quadrilateral Project. The company has also been proposing a Eurail type rail traffic management system for the railway. A similar system is currently under trial between New Delhi and Agra.

He added that the proposed exclusive freight corridor between Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) also throws several new interesting options as "speed and safety are both priority here."

Targetting a range of new generation technologies that the Indian railway is seeking to upgrade its existing systems, Bombardiers India, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Swedish company, Bombardiers International, is bullish on the Indian market.

Speaking to the Business Standard, Rajeev Jyoti, said, "We are very positive about the Indian market given the number of infrastructure projects coming up and railways keen on upgrading its existing systems."

With railways' own production looking up with an increase in freight traffic, it provides more opportunities to Bombardiers.

"The downturn of 2001-02 seems to be over. In the last two years, production at Chittaranjan Locomotive Workshop has gone up from 75-80 locomotives to 130 this year and it is expected to touch 150 next year. That is good news for us as we supply vehicle electronics and components like converters for the locomotives," said Jyoti.

Last year, the company supplied around 36 high power converters and vehicle electronics, 30 low power converters which provide power to a locomotive's auxiliary systems to the railways.