Creating a self-reliant railway ecosystem is intrinsic to realising the vision for a New India by 2047 (popularly referred to as ‘Amrit Kaal’), says Prithish Chowdhary, Deputy MD, Titagarh Rail Systems Ltd (TRSL). Speaking to Manish Pant after registering a 64 per cent surge in net profits and 11.4 per cent growth in EBITDA margin in 4QFY24, Chowdhary said the company is now focused on progressively expanding its products portfolio for the railway sector. In the long term, it would make railway components for the world by leveraging India’s cost advantages in manufacturing and engineering. Edited excerpts.

Why is creating a future-ready and aatmanirbhar rail ecosystem important in Amrit Kaal?
Let us first understand what is a future-ready Bharat. Here I will refer to one of the statements made by the Union Railway Minister [Ashwini Vaishnaw] on creating a ‘waitlist-free India in the next five years’. That will be a huge step for we all know presently one has to wait for weeks, if not months, to get a confirmed ticket. When that happens, passengers will be able to commute seamlessly. That’s ensuring ease of movement on the passenger front. You also know that at the end of the day, the [Indian] Railways earns a significant share of its revenues from freight. Moving more freight will mean that more economic activity is happening. So, achieving the 3 billion metric tonnes (mt) freight loading target set by the Railways for 2030 will be yet another realisation of the India growth story’s potential. And it’s not a pipe dream but a realistic target. So, an aatmanirbhar (self-reliant) railway ecosystem is essential. Otherwise, how long can one rely on foreign players or technology to get the best possible products?

What will be the role of private sector players like TRSL in this humongous exercise?
We are just a small peg in this growth story. But as proud flagbearers of the Make in India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiatives, we aim to make important contributions. We seek to make railway components in India for the world for both passenger and freight rail systems. We are already manufacturing hi-tech converters used in the railway propulsion systems and exporting them to Italy to be fitted into the Rome metro. We are the first and only company in the country capable of manufacturing aluminum metro coaches. Through our Italian associate [Firema Transporti], we have brought the best global technology India. Our aluminium metro coaches for the Pune metro project were a first for the country. The high-speed trains and metros in Europe are all built using aluminium. However, as the upfront cost of aluminium coaches works out to be more expensive in India, stainless steel has been traditionally preferred here.

And now you plan to achieve something bigger with the Vande Bharat coaches…
The Vande Bharat is the future of Indian Railways. As a company that understands trains, we consider Vande Bharat a world-class semi-high-speed train capable of travelling up to 180 km per hour. We have an order to make 80 train sets or 1,280, sleeper coaches for Vande Bharat. These will also be the first of their kind coaches to be manufactured by the private sector. Only two companies have got this order. One is our consortium with BHEL (Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd) and the other is a JV [Kinet Railway Solutions] of TMH (Transmashholding), RVNL (Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd), and LES (Locomotive Electronic Systems). However, we are the only fully Indian consortium working on the order.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said his government would like to promote a strong spirit of entrepreneurship in its third term in office. What are some of the areas that you may be looking at as you increasingly become an innovation-driven company in the railway sector?
We wholeheartedly second the inculcation of that spirit of entrepreneurship. We want to backward integrate as much as we can at TRSL. What we have achieved in driverless metro with the propulsion system is part of that strategy because a metro has multiple subsystems, several of which are value-added items. You know the contribution of an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) is between 30-50 per cent. If we want to be competitive and offer the best possible solutions to the customer as a company, backward integration into these value-added items will be the key focus. The propulsion system has three aspects: the traction motor, traction converter, and TCMS (Train Control and Monitoring System). We have signed [an agreement] with ABB for making TCMS for metro rail. We also have an old agreement with ABB for EMUs (Electrical Multiple Units). And we are now building traction converters for export. The manufacturing facility is ready and we have already supplied the prototype traction motors to the Indian Railways, which are in the final test phase. Our traction converter facility in Uttarpara – our centre of excellence for the passenger rail systems – will be turning out 200 traction motors monthly, or 2,400 traction motors yearly. Like what we are doing with the propulsion system, we may get into several other components over time. However, I will refrain from talking about those areas at this point. We have to source several small components for freight wagons from foreign suppliers. But now with the scale of 12,000 wagons per annum, it would make sense to manufacture them in-house.

Concerning your partnership with BHEL, why this may be a good time to establish new synergies between the public and the private sector?
Visibility of business is the most important factor for any private sector enterprise. We now have that visibility. Our tie-up with BHEL to manufacture coaches for Vande Bharat trains is an excellent example of a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) between a PSE (Public Sector Enterprise) and a private company. PSEs have several inherent strengths because they have been in their respective fields for decades and have some of the finest minds in the country working for them. The knowledge base and data with the PSEs, combined with the agility, flexibility, and work culture of the private sector, can create a formidable partnership.

What other growth areas do you see emerging from the Railways’ modernisation? Interestingly you have repeatedly cited the passenger segment as a major growth driver at a time when sectors like road transport and aviation are witnessing an unprecedented boom. So, what makes you so bullish on the railway sector’s growth potential?
I will answer the second question first. My reply may have been different if you had asked me this question a few years earlier. Although some plans had been announced their execution was a sore point with the private industry. What has changed since is the government combining the execution of those plans with a long-term vision. I will give you an example. In 2022, an order was finalised by the Railways for 72,000 wagons in one single tender after clubbing three-year demand. That was not only unprecedented but also something the industry had long awaited. So, the government is not just making plans, it is also acting on those plans, and, most importantly, also consulting with the industry to do things better. To answer your first question, whether it is the building of tracks, infrastructure, rolling stock, signalling, or shared manpower, the growth will be across the board. A large number of jobs will also be created in the process.

How well has the brand TRSL aligned itself with the thrust on the two ‘Ds’ of ‘digitalisation’ and ‘diversification’ in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and other geopolitical challenges?
There are two factors at play here. One is indigenisation. What you said about global supply chains shifting significantly is very true and that’s one of the major problems we faced during the COVID-19 pandemic while executing the Pune metro project. Indigenising played a key role in helping us out of that situation. However, when I say indigenisation, I don’t mean that in the [literal] sense of an Indian company making a product. The word can also be used for a foreign company manufacturing in India. That has helped the Railways to establish a strong supply chain within the country. We are also digitalising and automating. We have made a completely robotic manufacturing line for stainless-steel railcars, the only such facility in India today. Automation and upskilling of manpower are among our key focus areas. Last year, we hired about 300 engineers comprising graduate and diploma engineer trainees, who upon completion of their training will be assigned to different work areas to create an upskilled workforce and the next generation of leaders. Assuming that even 50 per cent of them stay with us, we would have a skilled workforce of 150 people. Additionally, we have adopted a government ITI (Industrial Training Institute) to meet our requirements and create manpower for the industry.

How do you propose to take Brand India to the world?
The export market will be one of our key growth drivers in the long term. The converter we are exporting to Italy is the first step in the process. We intend to supply rail coaches all over the world from India. That’s why we are building a capacity of 850 coaches per annum, which will be the largest installed capacity in the country on completion. The cost arbitrage that India provides in manufacturing and engineering, makes the quality of our products at par with global standards.

When we say 65 per cent of our future revenue will come from passenger rail systems, that includes export orders.

- Manish Pant