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G.R.N. Somashekar

Big orders: Mr V.R.S. Natarajan (left), Chairman & Managing Director, BEML, and Mr P. Dwarakanath, Director, Rail and Metro, BEML, at a press conference in Bangalore on Monday. —

Our Bureau

Bangalore, Feb.9 BEML, a Defence public sector undertaking, will be hitching a ride to rapid growth powered by the rail coaches business, expecting the segment to contribute a significant portion of its projected Rs 5,000-crore turnover during 2013-14.

The company, on Monday, announced it had bagged an order for 150 coaches from the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC), worth Rs 1,672 crore, in addition to an earlier order from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), valued at Rs 1,356 crore.

The first set of metro coaches will be delivered to BMRC by October 2010.

BEML, whose core business involves supplies to the Defence sector and heavy project equipment to the mining and construction sectors, is betting big on the rail coaches business, said Mr V.R.S. Natarajan, Chairman and Managing Director.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Natarajan said, apart from the orders for rail coaches to BMRC and DMRC, BEML would aim at supplying its indigenously developed stainless steel coaches to the Indian Railway’s EMU services in Chennai and Mumbai. The company also hopes to garner sizeable export business in metro rail coaches from the Philippines and Sri Lanka, apart from tapping the potential for supply to emerging centres in Tier-II cities of the country.

BEML plans to set up a Centre of Excellence to conduct research and development here at a cost of Rs 134 crore. The Central Government would be extending a grant of Rs 125 crore. The centre would undertake research and development for the design and development of metro coaches.

Mr Natarajan said the BEML-led consortium would be helped by Rotom of South Korea and Melco and Mitsubishi of Japan in the manufacture of metro rail coaches at its facility in Bangalore. It has set up a factory in Kolar in Karnataka and will setup one in Palakkad, Kerala for additional capacities.

More Stories on : New Business | Railways | Karnataka

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