There is a bit of Alstom in every metro project in India: MD Alain Spohr

With the inauguration of this facility, we are looking forward to becoming a leading supplier of components across Alstom's sites globally, says MD Spohr

Global major Alstom is expanding its presence in India through the Make in India route and has started a component-manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu, the largest in Asia, last month. Alain Spohr, managing director, Alstom India and South Asia, in an exclusive interview with Shine Jacob, talks about manufacturing plans in India and railway infrastructure projects. Edited excerpts:

You recently came up with a component-manufacturing unit in Coimbatore. What is the importance of this unit in the Alstom ecosystem?

This is our largest component-manufacturing facility in Asia and is dedicated to improving industrial efficiency in manufacturing components for various prestigious national and international projects. We have invested approximately 25 million euros to set up this site. Additional expansion is feasible.

With the inauguration of this facility, we are looking forward to becoming a leading supplier of components across Alstom’s sites globally. This site currently delivers not just to Alstom’s Indian sites but also to major sites across five continents -- Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.

Railways signalling and electrification saw a lot of work during the pandemic. How are you exposed to this and what are the growth prospects that you see?

With the ambition to become the world’s first “net-zero” carbon emitter by 2030, the Indian Railways has undertaken a multi-pronged approach to go green and decarbonise its operations. This includes increasing its sourcing of renewable energy (RE) to electrify its traction network and reduce energy consumption. Over the past two years, the railways has done a commendable job to attain its goal of electrifying its network by December 2023.

Recently Alstom completed its scope of work and delivered India’s first “Integrated Systems project for Railways” on the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor — 351 km of signalling, telecom, electrification, and setting up one of the world’s largest operations control centres in Uttar Pradesh. This is the first fully electrified operational section of the Dedicated Freight Corridor project. 

Alstom’s aim is to accompany transportation stakeholders globally in meeting tomorrow’s mobility challenges.

How do you see growth in your metro business portfolio?

Alstom has a strong order backlog of 4.1 billion euros (end of March 2021) from its India operations. This includes some of the most prestigious mainline and urban mobility projects currently underway across the country. With the Bombardier acquisition, there is a bit of Alstom in every metro project in the country. All our projects have a longer project lifecycle of five to 10 years (and sometimes more), depending on the scope of the work involved.

We are manufacturing cutting-edge rolling stock solutions for some of the most prestigious ongoing projects.

The pandemic has delayed some of our projects because our manufacturing sites were closed due to the lockdown. However, we have been able to ensure timely deliveries. We are compensating for the time lost by accelerating manufacturing and deliveries.
 

How is integration is happening in India after the Bombardier acquisition. How did it help the company?

With the acquisition of Bombardier Transportation, Alstom will now be able to offer an increased range of a comprehensive portfolio of offers to meet customer-specific needs, from cost-efficient mass-market platforms to high-end technological innovations. After acquisition, we employ over 8,500 people in India.