Business News/ News / India’s first private Vande Bharat sleepers to roll out by late 2025
Gift this article
India’s first privately-manufactured Vande Bharat trains will get inducted into the Indian Railways by late 2025. The Kolkata-based Titagarh Rail Systems Ltd. (TRSL) will launch a prototype of the sleeper version of the indigenously designed semi high-speed trains by June next year, company’s deputy CEO (passenger rolling stock) Prithish Chowdhary told Mint in an interview.
India’s first privately-manufactured Vande Bharat trains will get inducted into the Indian Railways by late 2025. The Kolkata-based Titagarh Rail Systems Ltd. (TRSL) will launch a prototype of the sleeper version of the indigenously designed semi high-speed trains by June next year, company’s deputy CEO (passenger rolling stock) Prithish Chowdhary told Mint in an interview.
“Our trains, the prototype, will be ready by June 2025. After the approval of the first prototype, say in two months time, we will supply 16 sleeper Vande Bharat trains over the next 12 months with deliveries starting from the first month onwards. In all, 80 trains will be delivered to the Indian Railways in four years from the approval of prototype," Chowdhary said.
“Our trains, the prototype, will be ready by June 2025. After the approval of the first prototype, say in two months time, we will supply 16 sleeper Vande Bharat trains over the next 12 months with deliveries starting from the first month onwards. In all, 80 trains will be delivered to the Indian Railways in four years from the approval of prototype," Chowdhary said.
Titagarh Rail Systems is the largest private company engaged in the manufacturing of freight and passenger rolling stock in the country.
The company is investing ₹1,000 crore to expand its operations, largely to strengthen its production line of the passenger rail systems, that would also involve manufacturing of Vande Bharat trains and metro rail coaches. Around ₹400 crore have been spend already and the remaining investments will now be invested over the next two years.
TRSL and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) consortium have bagged orders for 80 stainless steel Vande Bharat sleeper trains (1,280 coaches) worth ₹10,000 crore from the Indian Railways. The contract also involves a 35-year annual maintenance contract (AMC) worth ₹14,000 crore.
The company has already invested heavily into its West Bengal based Uttarpara plant that would make major portion of the 80 Vande Bharat trains for which orders are in place. Electrical components for the train will be supplied by consortium partner BHEL.
Chowdhary said that high level of preparedness for the project would mean that TRSL would become the first private supplier of Vande Bharat trains after another consortium of state-owned Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. (RVNL) and Russian company TMH starts delivering the first of 120 sets of sleeper ready Vande Bharat trains.
Vande Bharat trains are currently being made only at Integral Coach Factory (ICF) of the Indian Railways based out of Chennai. With annual requirement of these semi-high speed trains set to rise in coming months, the India Railways is inviting investments from both domestic and overseas rail makers to join the projects and start making in India.
Apart from sleeper trains, TRSL is also eyeing manufacture of the proposed Vande Bharat Metro train that is set to be rolled out by the railways soon. “The tender for Vande Bharat Metro trains has not been published yet. We are waiting for the tenders to get published so we can analyze, understand what is being asked. But on the face of it, it seems to be a great project and we are excited about it," Chowdhary said.
The government had earlier announced that three versions, Vande Bharat chair car, Vande Bharat sleeper and Vande Bharat Metro, would be operational soon.
“Our vision is to take India's name on the global map as one of the largest exporters of manufacturers of rolling stock. We want TRSL to become country’s first MNC in rolling stock space. We want to make in India and make for the world," said Chowdhary.
A large part of proposed investment by TRSL will go towards doubling its passenger coach manufacturing capability from present 36 coaches per month to over 72 coaches per month by 2028.
Apart from Vande Bharat order, the company is completing orders for Pune Metro System and is to supply 102 coaches to Surat and Ahmedabad Metro and another 204 coaches to Bangalore Metro.
On the freight wagon side, TRSL has crossed the milestone of producing 1,000 wagons a month in December when it rolled out 1,020 wagons. Then by March, it hit 1,080 wagons. “We are stabilizing at a run rate of 1,000 wagons per month. This is a good capacity to have. We don't really need more capacity than that now," Chowdhary said, indicating that focus of the company would now be to scale up and add new products on the passenger side of its business.
“Now that we have reached at a stable production level, the focus is on backward integration and optimization efficiency. So, once the top line part is stable, it gives us the room to optimize on the bottom line and on the Ebitda and that has been one of our key focus areas, not just in the freight, but also in the passenger," said Chowdhary.
Titagarh Rail Systems logged a 91.3% rise in net profit to ₹75.03 crore in Q3 against a net profit of ₹39.22 crore in the December 2022 quarter. Net revenues during the third quarter increased to ₹954.68 crore from ₹766.4 crore in the year-ago period. Its shares rose 1.36% to ₹1,056 a share at the close of market hours on BSE on Wednesday.
TRSL has an order book of about are ₹28,000 crore as of December 2023, while its Italian joint venture entity Firema has an order book of about €1.2 billion. Firema largely caters to export market for TRSL in Europe.
On exports, Chowdhary said that TRSL recently exported converters used in railway systems to Titagarh Firema that is supplying rolling stock to Rome Metro. This would be first exports of made-in-India railway products to Europe. Earlier, these high technology items were always being imported to India.
“Right now we are only focusing on India because the Indian market right now is so robust that there is enough opportunity for growth here. That being said, we are not ignoring the export market completely. We have our eyes and ears open, but we are not actively pursuing any opportunities from India for the export market," said Chowdhary.
TRSL has also ventured into rail component and subsystem business recently by tying up with Amber group of Delhi. Chowdhary said this business would be grown that would have ample opportunity even for exports.
India has set a target of having 4,500 Vande Bharat trains by 2047. As of 12 March 2024, 51 Vande Bharat trains are in service.
Catch all the Business News , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
Get the latest financial, economic and market news, instantly.
{{^adFree}}
{{/adFree}}