BEML plans to bid for Sri Lankan orders

Firm may help rebuild rail network destroyed by tsunami

Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) aims to participate in rebuilding parts of the Sri Lankan rail network destroyed by the December 2004 Tsunami. It had also left thousands dead in the island nation.

Projects worth some Rs 800 crore could be coming up and BEML was interested in bidding for all of them, V R S Natarajan, chairman and managing director of the firm told reporters here on Tuesday.

BEML also aims to bag orders to make coaches that were destroyed by the tsunami in Sri Lanka , Natarajan said.

The state-run engineering firm had announced last month that it had an order book position of some Rs 2,000 crore. Natarajan had said at the time of releasing the firm's annual financial results that he aimed to add another Rs 600 crore to Rs 800 crore worth of orders.

BEML has a 10-year corporate plan to reach annual sales of Rs 5,000 crore by 2013, when the firm will be 50 years old. Part of the plan is a Rs 120 crore capital expenditure this fiscal to modernise its manufacturing plants here.

The firm will build a centre for manufacturing for metro projects, dedicated to turning out coaches for various metro rail projects in the country. It will exploit the technology it secured from the South Korean engineering firm Rotem for the Delhi Metro project.

BEML is also expected to build coaches for the remaining phases of the Delhi Metro, including 120 coaches for some Rs 200 crore, he said.

BEML will also setting up a Centre for R&D Excellence in metro coaches, also at its Bangalore complex.

Last month, it said that FY05 sales grew 8.21 per cent to Rs 1,916 crore and profits before taxes increased 444 per cent to Rs 272.16 crore. Exports of Rs 60 crore included destinations like Sri Lanka, Suriname, Ethiopia and Netherlands.