(News) Two Chinese Firms Applied for a share of the Indian Railways’ locomotive market, Oct - 2013

Two Chinese firms — CSR Corporation and CNR Corporation — have created a flutter by bidding for a share of the Indian Railways’ locomotive market.

Both these have bid for setting up two locomotive factories — electric and diesel — in India to supply about 1,800 locomotives to the Railways over 11 years. These two tenders are valued at about Rs 35,000 crore over a 10-11-year period, according to industry estimates.

Now, all eyes are on whether the Chinese firms qualify technically to submit financial bids for the project, as that may set the stage for a more competitive price bids, say sector experts.

Traditionally, American and European firms have been key suppliers of high-tech products in locomotives for the Indian Railways. For the proposed electric locomotive factory to be set up at Madhepura, Bihar, apart from the two Chinese firms, bidders include American firm GE Global, and European firms Bombardier, Siemens and Alstom. Similarly, for the diesel locomotive factory in Marhowra, Bihar, bidders include American firms GE, EMD, apart from CSR and CNR.

Indian Railways is one of the largest markets globally. For EMD, India is one of the top markets after North America, William P Ainsworth, President and CEO, Electro-Motive Diesel and Progress Rail Services, told Business Line.

“Traditionally, European firms have been key suppliers in electric-traction-based rail technology while American firms have had strength in diesel-traction.

“They developed such strength based on the geographical requirement. Europe has a high-speed passenger network, which runs on electric traction. The US, Canada have large rail freight networks, used for heavy cargo movement that use diesel,” said Niraj Kumar, former Director-General, Indian Railways.

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Courtesy : Business Line