The Indian rolling stock market has matured over the past few years. With the Make in India initiative, foreign and domestic players have stepped up indigenous production. Metro systems have also been increasingly focusing on switching to advanced technologies such as driverless operations. The new metro systems, in particular, are ensuring that their rolling stock supports driverless technology. The introduction of fully automated driverless trains on one of the lines of the Delhi metro is a step in this direction.
Market size
According to India Infrastructure Research, the current market size of rolling stock is 6,056 metro coaches. In terms of number of coaches, the market size almost doubled between 2014 and 2020 on account of newly commissioned stretches and increased demand from existing operational systems. In terms of value, the rolling stock market has increased from Rs 52 billion in 2008 to over Rs 420 billion as of January 2021. Between 2019 and 2021, contracts for 1,323 coaches have been awarded, the latest being a contract for 234 coaches for Mumbai Metro Lines 4 and 4A, which was awarded in January 2021 to Bombardier Transportation.
Focus on indigenisation
Standardisation and indigenisation of urban rail systems are a key focus area of the government. In April 2017, the government issued guidelines for rolling stock standardisation norms as well as new mandatory conditions for indigenisation of rolling stock. These mandatory conditions are to be incorporated in tender documents for the procurement of metro cars and related critical equipment/subsystems indigenously. The Metro Rail Policy, 2017 has standardised various subsegments of the metro system, such as rolling stock and signalling. This has reduced the cost of manufacturing rolling stock from Rs 120 million per unit to less than Rs 80 million per unit on average.
Given the current level of indigenisation, only the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) seems to have been successful, with 85-90 per cent of its rolling stock being manufactured indigenously. Other operational systems in the country are yet to achieve such high levels of indigenisation. Many foreign players in the rolling stock market, including Alstom, Bombardier and Hyundai Rotem, have already set up manufacturing facilities in India.
A few examples of indigenous production by foreign players are as follows:
- Bombardier Transportation: In October 2020, the Delhi Metro received the 800th indigenously manufactured metro car from Bombardier for its network. Last year, Bombardier Transportation won a contract to supply 40 Bombardier Movia metro cars to the DMRC, to be delivered from the company’s manufacturing site in Gujarat. The last of these was delivered in December 2020. The Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System trains will be 100 per cent locally manufactured, with over 80 per cent local content.
- Alstom: Alstom India has successfully manufactured its 500th metro coach at its Sri City facility in Andhra Pradesh. It has also started manufacturing metro train sets for Mumbai Metro Line 3 (Aqua Line) at the same facility. Alstom will manufacture 31 lightweight fully furnished modern metro trains of eight cars each for the corridor. The company is also planning to double the manufacturing capacity at the Sri City unit from the current 240 train sets per annum to 480 train sets per annum.
- Titagarh Firema: Titagarh Firema will supply 102 coaches for the Pune metro, of which 25 per cent will be manufactured in Italy while the remaining 75 per cent will be produced and commissioned at the Maha Metro coach manufacturing plant in Nagpur.
Make in India has increased the level of indigenisation in metro projects. The government recently upgraded the level of the indigenous component across subsystems. In October 2020, the government revised the minimum local content (MLC) of various metro rail components. The existing MLC of such components issued in July 2018 was also reviewed last year. The revised MLC to be adopted by metro rail companies in the procurement of various components is shown in Table 1.
Growing role of Indian players
With the experience gained in manufacturing, integration and testing of metro cars, BEML has expanded its role in the metro business and is commanding considerable market share in India. In January 2021, the government unveiled the first driverless coach for the Mumbai metro manufactured by BEML under the Make in India initiative. These indigenously developed metro cars will be supplied to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority till January 2024. Meanwhile, Indian Railways (IR), through its Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, and Modern Coach Factory (MCF), Rae Bareilly, has begun producing metro rail coaches. These coaches are cheaper by a significant Rs 30 million-Rs 40 million than foreign-manufactured coaches. The MCF has been tasked with manufacturing metro coaches with a speed potential of 100 km per hour for the Kolkata Metro. Besides producing broad gauge aluminium-body coaches for IR, the MCF will also produce standard gauge metro coaches.
Thus, indigenisation through contract stipulation, knowledge sharing and technology transfers has resulted in the creation of a metro coach manufacturing industry, which benefits the burgeoning metro railway sector in India. Similar steps can be taken to establish home-grown original equipment manufacturers that provide metro components at cheaper costs, adapted to Indian conditions.
Introduction of driverless trains
The metro corporations in India currently use at least one driver on each of their vehicles, and while the capacity for full automation has been installed, it is still some time away. The introduction of smart and safe driverless train operations in metro systems will help in improving energy efficiency and operations. The government flagged off the country’s first ever fully automated driverless train service on the Magenta Line of the Delhi metro on December 28, 2020. With the commencement of these new-generation trains, the DMRC has entered an elite league of 7 per cent of the world’s metro networks that can operate driverless services. The newly launched driverless train is centrally controlled from the operations control centre. The DMRC has also announced that the 59 km long Pink Line is expected to have driverless operations by mid-2021. Driverless train service may also become a reality in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
The road ahead
The rolling stock market is set to receive a boost in the next four to five years from the healthy pipeline of urban rail projects. The experience with metro rail projects in Tier I cities has set the stage for Tier II cities. There is an increasing demand for mass transit in Tier II and Tier III cities. A few cities are also exploring light rail as an alternative to the capex-intensive metro rail. The concept of Metro-Neo is also at a nascent stage. All of these present various opportunities for manufacturers, both domestic and foreign.