You launched several new products for the metro and Indian Railway segments at the International Railway Equipment Exhibition (IREE) last year. How's been the response to these products?
Although we have been working along with Indian Railways for the last 50 years but with this IREE last Oct"15 participation we have seen a considerable traction and interest from all the stakeholders of the Indian Railways and even from different Railway Suppliers, Railways OEMs and Railway Production Units about our product portfolio.
We could launch our new products, capture the mind share of all the key decision makers, thought leaders from the very senior management of Indian Railways and Metro Authorities. We have evoked lot of interest from Private Wagon builders for our newly approved bogie mounted brake systems (BMBS) for the freight wagons, Rubber to Metal bonded products while the same from the Metro authorities and Indian Railways for Automatic Door Systems, Dampers, and MRVC type Electro Pneumatic Brake systems. The IREE platform has given us immense visibility which is great boost to our brand image for our Export markets like Egypt, Malaysia,
Thailand, Sri Lanka, Iran, Bangladesh and even China.
Particularly some of new products like Axle Mounted Disc Brakes for the LHB Alstom coaches, different high end dampers for locomotives and the Automatic Doors system for Metro segment have evoked a very positive response from the different Metro Car builders and we are soon expecting some orders for these products.
You have also entered into technology partnerships with companies in Germany, Korea and Australia. Tell us more about in terms of the nature of collaboration and how this will benefit Escorts and railways in India.
At Escorts our foundational ethos have been to bring the world's best to India at Indian prices and take the India's best to the world.
For the last two to three years, we have strategically forged relationship with some marquee rail technology majors who are global leaders in their own right, with an impressive lineage and array of supply references across Europe and SE Asia, Japan and South Korea.
These technology partnerships have been entered in view to give local solutions to the customer in India, some of the collaboration has been made with a view to establish future JV after reaching certain volume and local content per year.
Interestingly all our Technology partners are so impressed with Escorts with our low cost supplier ecosystem and frugal engineering competence that almost all of them are exploring future buy back options from us even for their home markets.
The Technology tie-ups will not only help in Technology rub off effects for our in house R&D to improve our domain knowledge and strengthen our core competence and knowhow of the products and services but also help us offer products to the Railways and Metros at a significantly lower cost and save the national exchequer some precious foreign exchange.
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