The Hindu Business Line : Multiple bogies: BEML in talks with foreign cos for tie-ups

Bangalore, Oct. 9 BEML Ltd is exploring joint venture possibilities with a foreign partner to produce multiple bogies and hopes to finalise the plan in around three months, according to its Chairman and Managing Director, Mr V.R.S. Natarajan.

“We are talking to 2-3 MNC majors for technology collaboration and the talks are in a preliminary stage,” Mr Natarajan told Business Line.

The coaches would meet captive demand, as well as emerging requirements of the Railways and metro projects.

There is a huge shortage of bogies and it will grow further when the rail projects and high-speed rail corridors for passenger and freight movement take off; this is the opportunity that BEML is looking to tap, Mr Natarajan said. The estimated demand during the 11th Plan period would be 22,500 coaches.

K.G.F. RAIL UNIT

At the inauguration of BEML’s Rs 30-crore second railway coach unit at Kolar Gold Fields, some 100 km from here, on Tuesday, Mr Natarajan said, “We are hopeful of reaching Rs 1,000 crore of turnover [from Rail & Metro Business] in another 3-4 years, up from the current Rs 100 crore of business.”

The unit, inaugurated by the Minister of State for Defence Production, Mr Rao Inderjit Singh, is expected to produce 40 coaches this year and move up to 100 coaches next year. BEML will be annually producing around 500 coaches from its Bangalore and KGF units.

The KGF unit has been set up on 100 acres of barren, idling land BEML has leased from the defunct Bharat Gold Mines Ltd, close to its own facilities.

It recently tied up with IL&FS to take up turnkey metro projects on BOOT basis and is looking at projects in Kochi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and opportunities of metro links to international airports.

The defence PSU expects total turnover to touch Rs 3,000 crore this fiscal and cross Rs 5,000 crore by 2013, its 50th year. Defence business alone is set to cross Rs 1,000 crore this year and double that figure in 2-3 years.

“We are very bullish on the mining and construction business,” which is set to more than double from Rs 1,600 crore in five years, he said.

DELHI METRO ORDER

BEML Ltd in consortium with Mitsubishi Corp, South Korea’s Rotem and Mitsubishi Electricals has bagged the prestigious Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s Rs 1,140-crore order to supply 156 coaches, likely to go up to 192.

The metro coaches’ demand would be worth Rs 13,000 crore for 1,800 cars and BEML is expected to take a sizable share of the cake in the business, Mr Natarajan, said.

With technology transfer for both broad and standard gauge metro coaches, Mr Natarajan said, “(BEML has) become the destination for diversified product sourcing for conventional rail coaches, EMUs (electric multiple units); special products and metro coaches. And maybe tomorrow, for LRT (light rail transit) and high-speed trains too.”