Bombardier to make India hub for rail coaches

Bombardier Inc, the world's biggest trainmaker, intends to use a subway-car plant in India as an export hub as economic development spurs investment in public transportation across Southeast Asia.

The company plans to market cars made at the Savli, western India factory in Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia, Pierre D St-Onge, the plant's general manager, told reporters at the factory today. The plant is working through orders for 538 cars from New Delhi.

The trainmaker has room to double the capacity of the factory to help sustain the exports push, St-Onge said, without giving a timeframe for expansion plans. Southeast Asian nations are investing in subways and urban rail systems to ease road congestion that has stymied growth and created pollution.

The Bombardier plant, which has two production lines, was opened in 2008 after the Montreal-based company won a contract to supply cars to Delhi Metro Rail Corp. The factory builds 32 carriages a month, which could be increased to 38 through the addition of more shifts and robots, he said.

The company has 288 cars left in its order backlog, all of which will be delivered by October, 2011, St-Onge said. The trainmaker is also targeting sales in other Indian cities, he said.

The world's second-most populous nation needs to spend $392 billion on mass rail and bus transport by 2030 as the urban population may rise to 590 million from 340 million in 2008, McKinsey & Co said in a report in April. To meet the demand, 35 rail-based transit systems are required in cities over the next two decades, it said.