What is your analysis of the railways industry in India at present?

India has the fourth largest rail network in the world and we at Bombardier are pleased with the efforts of Indian Railways and Metro rail organisations to modernise the rail transportation in India.

There are multiple challenges to rail infrastructure development - funding constraints, land acquisition issues and shortage of skilled manpower are some major reasons currently causing delays in infrastructure projects. With modernisation in the intermodal transport, rail transportation can be a significant engine of inclusive growth and development for India.

We are pleased with the overall direction of Indian Railways and Metro rail operators in India, which stresses on safety, introduction of new trains and technologies, increased focus on PPP (Public Private Partnership), improving passenger comfort, standardising norms, introduction of innovative financial models and most importantly reinforces commitment to involve the private sector. There is a growing market for public transit driven by urbanisation, environmental concerns and, most importantly, infrastructure spending by cities and governments.

Indian rail transportation market is very strong, and we have a key role to play. With Indian government, we're seeing clarity on modes of transport ideal for a particular city with major focus on integration and safety.

We are focused on projects which we consider as strategic and have long term prospects for our operations in India. We are closely pursuing various metro projects around India. There are various projects of Indian Railways requiring rolling stock, components, signalling and services where Bombardier is keen to participate. Ministry of Railways has set out its vision for rail as a key provider of connectivity and enabler of economic development, with significant investment over the next five years and with our presence and experience in the Indian market, we are well poised to play a key role in the rail market. The Indian government is actively pursuing long-term vision for a sustainable and stable railway system in India with emphasis on improving safety, expanding rail infrastructure, increasing capacity, reducing congestion, raising passenger comfort levels, technological innovations, and improving speed.
Bombardier aims at investing in India with a long-term perspective in manufacturing facilities, local talent, developing local supplier base and enhancing engineering capabilities in the projects which are strategic to our growth in India.

What are the things that you see working in the favour of Bombardier Transportation in India and what are the things that you would like to improve upon?
For over 50 years, Bombardier has been investing in India and well-established manufacturing setup, engineering capabilities, strategic supplier base and over 1500 highly skilled employees locally.

Bombardier is one of the largest rolling stock suppliers to Delhi Metro having delivered 776 metro cars with 40 more metro cars in delivery phase. Bombardier is also the largest signalling supplier to Delhi Metro with over 140 track km delivered. Bombardier has been a partner to Delhi Metro for over 10 years with more than US$ 1.25 BN worth of orders placed on Bombardier since 2007. The high degree of localization executed in the project at Bombardier's Savli and Maneja sites fulfils the requirements of the Indian government's ‘Make in India' campaign and Delhi Metro's indigenous procurement plan that encourages local manufacturing. Our energy efficient trains have helped the city of Delhi improve mobility and manage pollution levels as well as provided effective public transport during the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Our vehicles have also contributed to Delhi Metro receiving UN carbon credits, world's first for a metro project.

Bombardier completed serial deliveries for the supply of propulsion equipment to Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) for 72 twelve-car trains in 2017. Our propulsion equipped trains operate on Mumbai suburban rail network which safely move millions every day. Bombardier is supplying propulsion equipment to Indian Railways for locomotives and this long-standing relationship began in 1993 with a design-and-build contract for electric mainline passenger and freight locomotives. Currently, Bombardier is moving around five million people daily in the cities of Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata and our propulsion equipped locomotives travel around 300,000 track km every day on Indian Railways network.

In 2019, we completed deliveries for 450 commuter cars for Queensland Rail project and continue to export rail equipment for various global projects. Our team continues to deliver high quality products for Indian Railways and 2019, we successfully commissioned over 260 locomotive sets of IGBT Traction Converters at Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW), a record by any Indian Railways supplier to date.

As a private rail supplier, our Indian team is one of the only teams in the country who  supported two global sports events - 2010 Delhi and 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

How's been the business for the last financial year?

Business in India has been in line with our expectations. As a company policy, we don't reveal local entity related numbers as Bombardier is only listed in Toronto Stock Exchange. Bombardier Transportation is committed to the growth of rail transportation industry in India.

Our investment of around Rs.230 crore (33 million euro) in state-of-the-art railway vehicle manufacturing at Savli, Gujarat, is a testimony to the fact that India is one of the most important markets. Bombardier has invested around US$ 100 million over the last two decades in Indian manufacturing sites, people, technology and strategic supply chain.

How do you look at the endeavours of Indian Railways to explore the possibility of private train operation on their network?

We really appreciate the efforts of Indian Railways to explore the possibility of private train operation on their network. Bombardier is following the train operations project closely and is in discussion with senior Indian Railway officials. It is too early at this stage to comment on the future course of action as we continue to evaluate the viability of the project.

We, at Bombardier, feel that reinforcement on public private partnerships (PPP) will gain momentum in the coming years in India resulting in faster development of railway infrastructure, including rolling stock. We share Indian government's vision to decongest India by rail investments with higher involvement of private sector in train operations as an initial project and outlining a safer railway system in India. As our recent investments demonstrate, we are committed to the development of rail transportation in India, where we have built capabilities covering complete range of railway vehicle manufacturing, local engineering and strategic supplier base with local skilled employees.

Briefly tell us about a key project where Bombardier Transportation is currently working in India.

Bombardier Transportation has received a Letter of Award from India's National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) to build and deliver regional commuter and intracity transit trains with comprehensive maintenance services for the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut semi-high-speed rail corridor under Phase 1 of the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS). The project scope involves supplying 30 regional commuter trainsets of six cars each and 10 intracity mass transit trainsets of three cars each, together with 15 years of rolling stock maintenance. The Letter of Award is valued at approximately Rs.2577 crore (314 million euro, $340 million US) and the customer has a provision to exercise an option of additional 90 cars and two years of maintenance. 

Vinay Kumar Singh, Managing Director at NCRTC, has said that ‘finalisation of the Rolling Stock bid process is an important milestone in the implementation of India's first Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) project. He has mentioned that this partnership with Bombardier Transportation to supply 100 per cent locally manufactured train sets for the entire Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS with over 83 per cent local content will be a shot in the arm for the Make in India initiative of the Government of India. He has also expressed confidence that ‘together we will deliver this transformational project in time to fulfil the aspirations of the residents of the National Capital Region contributing to improvement in their quality of life'.

We are proud to be chosen to deliver India's flagship regional rapid transit system project which will expand public transport in the national capital and connect adjoining fast-growing cities. Our new trains will be truly designed and manufactured in India, and they will enhance passenger comfort and safety. This project award for India's first and most advanced semi-high-speed regional trains, together with maintenance services, reaffirms Bombardier's pioneering position in India's rail industry. This is also the first project in India for regional and local transit services operating on the same network, progressively realising India's vision for the multi modal integration of transport networks.

The project will be executed in accordance with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship ‘Make in India' guidelines, with the trains being manufactured at Bombardier's Vadodara sites in India. The rolling stock will be designed at the Global Engineering and Technology Centre in Hyderabad, India and local teams will provide maintenance services through two project and maintenance depots established by our customer in Duhai and Modipuram. It is India's first project to include maintenance services as part of rolling stock tender process and Bombardier will deliver globally proven maintenance solutions to ensure safe and reliable train operations.

The 82-kilometre Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS will boast a 180 kmph design speed, first of its kind rolling stock in India for regional transit services and will be implemented in phases between the cities. The corridor will have 24 stations and besides offering high-speed commuter services on the corridor, the infrastructure will also be used for offering local transit services in Meerut. The trains will reduce travel time from Delhi to Meerut to less than 60 minutes and daily expected ridership is around 800,000 passengers. Local transit services between Meerut South and Modipuram Depot Station with 13 stations over 21 km on RRTS infrastructure will meet the local mobility needs of Meerut citizens and will provide efficient regional connectivity.

Where do you see Bombardier Transportation with regards to ‘Design in India' and ‘Engineer in India' and ‘Make in India'?

In April 2017, Bombardier Transportation opened a new engineering centre supporting product development and design activities in Hyderabad, India. This new facility expands Bombardier's global network of specialised centres with a particular focus on the development of metro and electrical multiple unit (EMU) product platforms and engineering design for transportation projects locally and globally.

As part of our commitment to developing local talent, our goal is to continue to grow the team in Hyderabad and support our product development strategy, innovation and improve our services to our customers. Bombardier has also been significantly growing its engineering presence in India over the years with a new rail control facility for Engineering and Product Development (EAPD) in Gurugram Delhi NCR, a Train Control and Management System (TCMS) centre in Vadodara, a bogie, carbody and vehicle engineering centre as well as an engineering centre in Hyderabad along with project engineering teams at our manufacturing sites near Vadodara.

The trains for our new NCRTC project will be designed, engineered and manufactured in India by our local team. We are not in a position to comment on number of employees, but we can say that there will be a significant ramp up of our operations at Hyderabad supporting NCRTC project.

What is the percent of local content used in your India made products at present?

Our Savli site is the only site in India to have manufactured and successfully delivered over 1000 rail cars (Delhi Metro and Queensland Rail combined) and over 4500 bogies and bogie frames for domestic and export projects. Bombardier has a large industrial presence in India. Vadodara is one of the few cities in the world with the capacity to deliver all key electrical and mechanical components for the manufacturing of railway vehicles. Our Savli site has a demonstrated capacity of manufacturing one car per day and we have built capacity to manufacture 35 metro cars per month. Our Maneja site is also supplying propulsion equipment to Indian Railways for locomotives and EMU's for over two decades.

Our commitment and investment have attracted world class rail suppliers to India making our local content and sourcing significantly from India itself.

Our employees in Gujarat are fully trained on special tools and processes to ensure standard quality across Bombardier. Savli started with rail engineering experts from across the globe moving to India to set up a manufacturing site has rapidly evolved into a truly Indian production and export hub with high international standards.

Are you also exporting from India?

In 2019, our site in India completed delivery of 450 commuter cars for the Queensland New Generation Rollingstock (QNGR) project for Australia. Vehicle assembly and bogie manufacture took place at the Savli site and the Maneja site, near Vadodara, supplied the propulsion equipment.

These trains travelled more than 10,500 km by road and sea from Savli, India to the Port of Brisbane. These trains supported mobility during 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast and are operate successfully on the Queensland Rail network. This project truly demonstrated Indian government's promise on Make in India and Bombardier's efforts on this project have been acknowledged by Indian Prime Minister and his cabinet ministers. In addition, Bombardier continues to export rail equipment for Bombardier global projects.

How has the Covid19 outbreak impacted Bombardier Transportation in India and globally? How have you been dealing with the same?

We take it as a priority to ensure our employees and business partners can work in a safe environment. During the pandemic, Bombardier follows the guidance of the official authorities in each country; also the situation varies considerably from one site to another. In order to take all these factors into account, different regulations are applicable for each Bombardier site.

In the current unprecedented circumstances, we want to protect our people from COVID-19, support the Indian Government's efforts to contain the spread the virus, and to ensure sustainable business continuity. Following the Indian Government's directive to extend the lockdown whilst announcing relaxation norms for essential industrial units from April 20, Bombardier Transportation resumed its operations across both Vadodara sites in the last week of April. Our sites are operating in adherence to strict internal safety guidelines and in compliance with state and central government directive to re-start operations. Our remaining staff across India continues to work from home and customer services staff follows enhanced safe working practices in case of any urgent onsite support required by the customer.

How has the Covid19 outbreak impacted your outlook for the near and mid-term future?

When the crisis began to unfold globally and in India, we acted swiftly to protect the health and safety of our employees, support government mandates to contain the spread of the virus and provide service to our customers in the best possible way.

It's clear that a new reality is upon us and it's critical that we embrace this new reality very quickly. We'll need to change how we operate - and how we move forward to support our customers. That's exactly what we are doing to execute our priorities and business in India to be more predictable and consistent in our performance.

There is a huge focus on digitalisation across the business world. How do you see this impacting the Railways sector, both globally and in India?
We always put safety first, no exceptions. Now more than ever we believe that our relentless evolution of technical safety is a vital prerequisite for successful mobility solutions. Digitalization is a key enabler to safety standards in the transportation industry. This is for the benefit of rail operators, passengers and society.

The capital costs for a new train account for around one third of its full lifetime cost and today's trains are safer, more energy efficient, more reliable and easier to maintain then they have ever been. Everyone from manufacturer and operator to the owner and the authority has a significant role to play in ensuring our rail systems aren't compromised. Digitalisation is already improving security. Due to the relative affordability of advanced sensors, manufacturers are leveraging the power of mobility innovations for rolling stock services. This implies predictive maintenance or communication-based train control for signalling. Both have increased safety and reduced the potential for human error while improving efficiency. Of course, the Internet of Things, interconnectivity and the potential integration of personal devices into operator's platforms do present new challenges.

RRTS project is India's first project to include maintenance services as part of rolling stock tender process and Bombardier will deliver globally proven maintenance solutions to ensure safe and reliable train operations. Bombardier has proven capability to fully automate safety critical maintenance tasks using automated measurement inputs to prognostically forecast maintenance intervention. The use of technology to support delivery of an advanced maintenance strategy can enable improvement in safety and reduced total cost of ownership.

As a world leader in signalling solutions and rail control, we deliver complete mainline systems, subsystems and individual products to railway operators and infrastructure all over the world. In India, our innovative signalling solutions can support Indian Railway's urgent need to upgrade and install advanced rail control solutions on its vast mainline network.

END