Savli fuels Bombardier's Asia-Pacific plan

In what could raise India’s share to Bombardier Transportation’s global sales to double digits, the Canadian railway vehicle and signalling system major is looking to serve Asia Pacific through its Savli plant in Vadodara.

Refusing to share the exact share of Bombardier Transportation’s India business to its global sales, its chief country representative, India, Harsh Dhingra, said in the coming years, the same could grow to double digits.

“We are looking at the Asia Pacific (APAC) regions also. We supply components to overseas markets from Savli and that will continue. However, on top of it, we will have vehicle supply (from Savli) depending on the countries which we have focused upon. Bombardier Transportation’s 65-70 per cent business comes from the European market while Asia Pacific contributes only five-six per cent. So the current contribution of India to overall Bombardier sales is not much but there is a growth which we see from India,” Dhingra said.

At a capacity of 350 metro cars per annum, the Savli plant along with the propulsion systems manufacturing facility at Maneja in Vadodara is serving two orders, including that from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for the metro rail in the capital and 450 commuter cars for the Queensland New Generation Rollingstock (QNGR) project for Australia.

Set up in 2008 at an investment of Rs 230 crore, Savli has seen 80-85 per cent utilisation due to the two projects under execution. Bombardier has invested about $100 million over the last two decades in Indian manufacturing sites, people, engineering, local supplier network and proven technologies.

“The current capacity is able to meet the demand. But depending on the order flow, if any expansion is needed, we will be ready to do that. All these projects will take six months to two years to realise. Our focus is on major metro projects in major cities because we want to focus on high quantity base,” Dhingra said.