BHEL in joint venture talks with Alstom, GE, Siemens for Indian Railways' 660-locomotives tender

25 July 2008

Mumbai: Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd (BHEL) is in talks with Alstom SA, General Electric Co and Siemens AG for a joint venture with Indian Railways to manufacture high horse power locomotives, chairman K Ravi Kumar said.

BHEL plans to jointly bid for a plant in Bihar to supply 660 locomotives of 12,000 horsepower for eight years and provide maintenance for two decades. The Railways will own 26 per cent of the venture that may need investments of about Rs1,000 crore.

''In every venture we look for a three-way combination: a technology provider, a manufacturer like us, and a user,'' Ravi Kumar said, adding, BHEL will finalise the partner by the end of the year.

The Indian Railways has floated a tender, the largest of its kind, to procure 660 electric locomotives, at an estimated cost of Rs25,000 crore. The price bids, for supply and maintenance of these locomotives for a period of 20 years, also includes jointly setting up an electric locomotive factory in Medhepur, eastern Bihar, at an estimated cost of over Rs1,000 crore.

Besides BHEL, other global companies such as Siemens AG, Alstom SA, Toshiba Corp., CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Works Co. Ltd of China and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd have also likely to bid for the project. The bids will be accepted till 30 July.

BHEL expects a big boost to passenger and freight traffic on the Indian Railways, the second largest rail network in the world, with the new freight corridors.