Bombardier Transportation, the rail equipment division of Canada’s Bombardier group, will use its first Indian metro rail coach factory in Savli, Gujarat, as a hub for exporting to South-East Asia.
Bombardier will begin assembly of rail coaches at its $41-million Savli plant from March 2009, the company said in a statement issued at the factory site today. The Savli plant has been recently set up on an area spanning across 165,000 square metres.
The Montreal-based company is looking to capture new business in India, Asia’s third-largest economy, which is improving public transport in cities such as Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore.
The Canadian major is in advanced talks with Maytas, which is leading a consortium that is building the Rs 12,000-crore Hyderabad Metro project. Bombardier is also eyeing similar projects in Mumbai and Bangalore to supply metro rail cars.
“In the next three to five years, we see a demand for over 500 metro rail cars a year in India. This demand will be spurred up by the upcoming metro rail projects across the country.”
“Having successfully gained a contract for supply of rail cars to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), we will now be bidding for other similar projects in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bangalore,” said Stephane Rambaud Measson, president (passengers division), Bombardier Transportation.
The company is also looking at supplying metro rail cars and other equipment to China, Singapore and other South-East Asian countries. According to Measson, the company will supply metro rail cars from its facility in Savli.
“The new manufacturing plant is set to serve projects in India as well as in the South-East Asian region. The first order is the delivery of 424 Bombardier Movia metro cars to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). The plant will create around 750 direct and 2,000 indirect jobs in the region,” said Laurent Beaudoin, the chairman of Bombardier. The order with DMRC is estimated to be worth Rs 3,000 crore, delivery of which is expected to take place by March 2009.
The plant currently has a manufacturing capacity of 24 metro rail cars a month, which may be expanded to 32 cars as and when the demand increases.
Bombardier Transportation is also planning to supply high-power locomotives to Indian Railways.
“Indian Railways is looking for a private partner to manufacture 800 high-power locomotives over a period of 10 years. Under the partnership, the private player will have a 74 per cent stake, while Indian Railways will hold the remaining 26 per cent,” said Rajeev Jyoti, the president and managing director of Bombardier Transportation.
Jyoti added that Madhepura in Bihar will be the site for manufacturing high-power locomotives.
