Banking big on the government's thrust to boost infrastructure, global transportation player Bombardier is eyeing up to USD 1 billion business from India in the next five years from USD 300 million, at present, its chief Laurent Troger has said.
Bombardier counts India among top markets for its railway business and has invested over USD 100 million in the past two decades. The firm is also a collaborator in the government's ambitious Make in India drive and is the largest supplier of the Delhi Metro.
"We expect that in five years we will double our business in India. We can reach between USD 700 million and USD 1 billion... India, in the overall landscape of Bombardier Transportation, is a significant country. The climate now is very favourable, if we look for investment," Bombardier Transportation President Troger told PTI.
Troger said compared to the global scale of business to the tune of about USD 8.5 billion, India revenue was about USD 300 million, but with the government's thrust on drives like Make in India and Skill India, the company saw a hoard of opportunities here.
"In India I would say this is (business) quite small... We expect to grow it significantly. If you can move above 10 per cent, this is great. Right now it is less than 10 per cent, which we want to double to about 20 per cent by 2020. What we see there is significant dynamic in investment with new the government," Troger said.
"On infrastructure front, the government is very keen that it is linked to the GDP," he said adding "this can attract a lot of players, but we consider by far we have the largest footprints and we are also the largest player having the new technology."
Terming Make in India as one of the key initiatives of the government, Bombardier chief said it is based on a very strong local footprint when you integrate in the same place in the same country most of your capabilities.
On financing, Troger said it remains the main critical area to ensure projects on time.
He said, "The government is more and more open to private financing through contracts and also open to soft loans from other countries like Japan and Europe," and added that the government could attract huge investment.
While terming investment climate as "very favourable", Troger stressed "it would require a very strong decision making in executing the projects and to ensure that these projects are bringing in return ...It has to be sustained.
Troger said the company has 2,000 direct employees in
India and with indirect employees, the number swells to 4,000.
"The labour activity in India is in fact at a stage where I see a lot of potential. We are positioned as a global company with most of the products you can find - from rail to metro and speed trains. So we are well-positioned for significant investment being planned in India," he said.
Troger said Bombardier has demonstrated its "capacity and capability" and could partner Skill India. "We will use more and more Indian resources to deliver international projects."
He said the Canadian firm supports the Indian government's vision on Skill India with locally-grown talent delivering projects for both India and exports, as well as supporting the Clean India Movement by regularly arranging clean up drives in Vadodara.
He said an investor expects "visibility" and is ready to take risks provided there is a share of risk and if Indian government keeps stability "there is no reason for us to not invest or continue to invest."
The firm views plans like mass transit systems in over 50 cities by 2020, modernisation of Indian Railways, plans for semi-high speed and high speed trains as huge potential to further optimise the Indian transport system.
He said Bombardier is actively collaborating in Make in India programme by delivering rail vehicles, products and solutions that are developed locally for both Indian and foreign markets.
The company operates a railway vehicle manufacturing site and bogie assembly hall at Savli near Vadodara.
This is in addition to a propulsion systems manufacturing facility at Maneja, near Vadodara.
Besides there is Rail Control Solutions Centre for project delivery and product engineering and an Information Services India hub near Gurgaon, Delhi NCR and an Engineering Centre in Hyderabad.
It is the Delhi Metro's largest supplier of signaling systems and one of its largest suppliers of rolling stock with more than USD 1.2 billion worth of orders placed since 2007.
Bombardier has delivered 614 Bombardier MOVIA metro cars with an additional order of 162 metro cars recently received from Delhi Metro, making it one of the largest operating fleet in the world for Bombardier.
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Troger along with other officials of Bombardier including President of Asia Pacific Region, Benoit Cattin-Martel and Chief Country Representative and Whole Time Director, Harsh Dhingra met Prime Minister Narendra Modi today.
During a meeting with Bombardier officials, Modi said, "I appreciate the efforts of Bombardier Transportation for investing in India through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) route.
"We acknowledge the contribution of Bombardier in supporting India's Make in India and Skill India programme by producing trains for India and for exports from India.
