On a high after bagging contracts for signalling, electrification and telecom solutions for the Kochi Metro, French engineering major Alstom plans to double its business to €800 million (about ₹5,700 crore) in India in the next three-four years.

“We plan to hire 200-250 engineers a year in India over the next three-four years. At present, we have 800 engineers in the country. Also, we are looking at doubling the order book in the next three to four years from €400 million at present,” Henri Poupart-Lafarge, Presdient, Alstom (Transport), told reporters during the UITP 2015 in Milan, an international exhibition on public transport solutions.

Alstom, which plans 80 per cent local sourcing for the Kochi Metro project from its plant in Chennai, is also involved in Metro rail projects in Delhi, Jaipur, Chennai and Bengaluru. Commenting on the “improved” business environment in India, the Alstom Transport chief said the Narendra Modi government’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘smart cities’ initiatives were the other areas that excited the company, while admitting that the concept of ‘smart cities’ was still not quite clear.

When asked about land acquisition problems in India, Poupart-Lafarge said: “These are sensitive issues and every nation faces such problems. It is not something peculiar to India.”

Alstom, whose Indian arm is optimistic about bagging another contract in the Dedicated Freight Corridor, said it was interested in the “Indian railway type of market”.

Jojo Alexander, Vice-President, Business Development, Alstom Transport (Asia-Pacific Region), said: “We have recently bid for the electrification and signalling package of the Khurja-Bhaupur (343 km) section of the Eastern Corridor… however, we cannot say much until the contract is formally awarded.”

Metro projects On the key challenges faced by companies such as Alstom in the Metro business in India, Alexander said, “lack of standardisation across Metro projects”, is the biggest one. “The execution of Metro projects can be faster and more cost-efficient if there are uniform standards across cities,” he added.

Alexander said India should also look at modern light rail systems, such as an elevated tramway, as another mode of public transport, especially for smaller towns and cities where roads are narrower.

In Milan, Alstom launched Attractis, a “simple to operate, cost-effective and integrated tramway system” for growing cities and SRS, a ground-based static charging system for trams and electrical buses.

(The writer was in Milan at the invitation of Alstom)

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