China’s largest train maker launches ops in Haryana

BEIJING: China’s biggest highspeed train and railway equipment maker announced that its first joint venture in India has started operations in Haryana, in an indication that Sino-India cooperation in the railways sector was poised to take off.

It is for the first time that the Beijing-based China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) — a mammoth stateowned enterprise (SOE) in China with more than 175,000 employees — was setting up a joint venture in south Asia.

A subsidiary of the company has supplied subway trains for the Rio De Janeiro Olympics. Its first plant in North America started operations in September 2015 in Massachusetts.

The Sino-India joint venture, expected to manufacture and repair locomotive engines, is being called the CRRC Pioneer (India) Electric Company and has been set up in the Bavo Industrial sector in Haryana, on the lines of New Delhi and Mumbai industrial corridor.

“Total investment is $ 63.4 million and the Chinese side holds 51% of the share,” the CRRC said in a statement.

“It will also provide technology support to India’s rail system, and supply electric transmission systems to oil drilling, wind power generation and mining equipment making in India,” the statement said.

It added, “It is the first time for the company to open a plant in south Asia where one of the world’s most comprehensive rail system spans. CRRC is also the first foreign company to set up assembly line of rail transportation equipment in India after PM Narendra Modi unveiled his ambitious ‘Made in India’ campaign in 2014.”