Rs1,00,000 crore needed for metro projects: Sreedharan

India's 'metro king' E Sreedharan has said that the Rs85,000 crore invested in metro rail projects so far is only the beginning, and the upcoming metro rail projects in the country will require an investment of Rs100,000 crore over a period of 10 years.

"As of now, the country requires around 250-300 metro coaches per annum, but this may go up in future," Sreedharan, managing director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd, said at the launch of Bombardier Transportation's first 'Movia' metro train from its new facility in Savli near Vadodara.

The new metro train is part of an order for 424 Movia metro cars for the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and was built in 24 months including the time it took to construct the new manufacturing facility.

Sreedharan further said, "There are many metro rail projects coming up in the country. For instance, construction has already begun in cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi. In addition, metro rail projects are in consideration for Lucknow, Jaipur, Cochin, Ludhiana, Pune and Kanpur, and DMRC is preparing a detail project report for the same."

Sreedharan also called for greater indigenisation of the metro rail cars. "The level of indigenisation is only 30 per cent, and it needs to be increased to a very high level. However, it is only possible when ancillary manufacturing units are set up nearby for which the Gujarat government should also take the lead," said Sreedharan.

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who was present on the occasion, offered Bombardier land along the coastline and other support services to build another unit primarily for exports.

Listing out project costs for various metro rail projects, Sreedharan said, "The cost of first phase of Delhi metro rail project was around Rs10,000 crore while the second phase will see an additional cost of Rs20,000 crore. Each of Chennai and Kolkata metro rail projects will also cost around Rs10,000 crore, and the Mumbai project will require an investment of Rs15,000 crore.

''For Delhi we have ordered around 81 metro trains with four coaches each, and by October 2010 the second phase of the project will cost Rs3,000 crore," he added. DMRC plans to complete the additional 125 km of the second phase before Commonwealth Games next year.

Meanwhile Bombarier Transportation, the $20billion Canadian giant, said it plans to cater to the requirements of metro railways across Asia. The company also plans to introduce Traxx electric locomotives for Indian Railways' dedicated freight corridor projects. The company has already sold around 1,300 Traxx locomotives around the world.

Bombardier has made a foreign direct investment of 33 million euro, or Rs200 crore, to build the Savli plant, which is a replica of its unit at Gorlitz in Germany.

The company has already obtained orders for 424 Movia metro cars from the DMRC. Bombardier is also looking forward to cater to other metro railways that will soon be introduced in the big cities by the urban development ministry. The DMRC being the first venture of the urban development ministry would be associated with all these projects.