Explained: How a GE factory at Marhowra became a 'Make in India' flagship

In the first of the two-part series, Shine Jacob analyses how a GE factory at Marhowra became a 'Make in India' flagship

The shop floor buzzes with activity as the finishing touches are given, with a proud flourish, to the 100th locomotive to roll off the assembly line. GE Transportation’s manufacturing unit at Marhowra, 80 km north of Patna in Bihar, is an unlikely place to become a showcase of Make in India but it is.  

GE started working here ever since it signed a $2.5 billion contract with the Railways in 2015 for the supply of 1,000 high-power freight locomotives over 10 years. 

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Make in India scheme in 2014, Marhowra was hardly part of India’s industrial map. Yet GE’s newly built diesel locomotive factory (a division of Wabtec since February) is on the verge of a milestone by becoming one of the biggest success stories under the scheme. 

Under the contract, GE was entitled to import the 100 locomotives. “What we chose to do was that we would import half of this fully built from the US while we constructed the plant here. The balance half was imported as kits from the US and assembled at the factory,” said Nalin Jain, president and chief executive officer, International, GE Transportation.

This quarter, the first completely localised locomotives are expected to come out of the unit, in which 70 per cent of suppliers are local. Even the 10 per cent of suppliers that are global are setting up shop in India for the project. “We have started working on completely a local version," said Shankarjyoti Dhar, the plant head at Marhowra.  

The contract also includes building two maintenance sheds at Roza in Uttar Pradesh and Gandhidham in Gujarat. While Roza is already on stream and is monitoring the locomotives given to the Railways, Gandhidham will be on stream by 2020.

When the construction of the plant started in June 2016, things were not so rosy at all. The area (selected by the government) was under seismic zone IV and flood-prone. Such a large locomotive manufacturing unit in Marhowra sounded unrealistic for several reasons. First, the area was remote and undeveloped with hardly any basic amenities, including health clinics. Two, it had taken a full eight years for the contract to be awarded, a process that started in 2007 when Lalu Prasad Yadav was railways minister. 

Third, acquiring land was a problem. “Initially, we had many land compensation issues. Then we started full-fledged in November 2016. We had the challenge of constructing in extreme weather conditions too,” recalled Dhar. 

Four, finding manpower to work in a rural hamlet was a challenge. GE had to scour for talent at multiple colleges across Bihar and Jharkhand for diploma holders. Later, it assigned the recruits to ‘shadow training’ at GE facilities, including the one in Pune, for them to learn hands-on. 

“We also started an in-house welding school in Patna because we need specialised welding. Rigorous training was given before they started working with the product. Close to 200 of our people are fresh from colleges,” said Dhar.

Since the plant was finally finished in September 2018, it has hired a total of 600 direct and indirect staff. Modelled on the GE diesel locomotive unit at Texas, the factory follows lean manufacturing practices (a Japanese technique for minimising waste) for making about 120 locomotives per annum. 

“It is all about culture — training employees, identifying and eliminate waste, and developing 700 models of lean manufacturing,” said Raghavendra, team leader, lean manufacturing.

For safety, Engineering Procurement and Construction contractor Shapoorji Pallonji has formed a special team of 30 safety stewards. The factory is divided into different sections with centre of excellences and light and heavy fabrication areas. While line feeding happens from north to south, the product moves from west to east inside the factory, following the lean techniques.  

“This is a green factory. We have ground water, we recharge the aquifers through rain water harvesting as well. The factory has natural lighting which means we use less power. The roofs are all insulated. Our power consumption is close to 5 mega watt, out of which solar meets around 20 per cent,” said Dhar.