Medha Servo Drives, Stadler Rail in JV pact for rail coach factory in TS

Line-up For TS

- Schneider Electric setting up its 2nd state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Hyderabad

- Switzerland-headquartered Ferring Pharma establishing a 60 mn Euros worth formulation plant in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The much-awaited rail coach factory is taking off in Telangana albeit in the private sector. Though the rail coach factory promised by the Centre has not come up even after eight years, the State has succeeded in attracting private investment in the sector.

Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd, which has already established a modern rail coach factory at Kondakal in Rangareddy district near Hyderabad, now has Swiss-based Stadler Rail as its joint venture partner. The announcement was made in the presence of Telangana Industry and IT Minister KT Rama Rao, on the sidelines of World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, according to an official release here on Wednesday. The joint venture between Stadler and Medha will give further impetus to the rail coach factory, adds the release. The private rail coach factory will have a production capacity of 500 coaches and 50 locomotives per year.

Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd and Swiss firm Stadler Rail will jointly set up the rail coach manufacturing unit in Telangana at an outlay of Rs1,000 crore. The joint venture will invest over Rs 1,000 crores over a period of two years into the manufacturing unit. The facility is expected to create employment for over 2,500 people from the state. The unit is set to be of extremely high importance to Stadler and the city-based Medha Servo as it will be the primary site of manufacturing for their tenders not only from India, but also for their customers across the APAC region, it said.

"I am extremely delighted that Stadler chose Hyderabad as their primary location for rail coach manufacturing for the complete APAC region in partnership with Medha Servo. This will show the world the potential that Hyderabad has, to match global investment destinations in terms of quality of talent and output," said KT Rama Rao.

Ansgar Brockmeyer, executive V-P (sales and marketing), Stadler Rail, adds: "This unit will be one of the most important centres for us as we plan on scaling up activities in India and in the APAC ( Asia-Pacific) region. We are very happy with the support provided by the Government and look forward to more business out of the region."

KTR on August 13, 2020, laid the foundation stone for the factory. Spread over 100 acres, the factory will develop all types of railway rolling stock including coaches, train sets, locomotives, metro trains and monorails.

A separate release from the Minister's office further stated that Schneider Electric's Executive Vice-President Luc Remont, announced its expansion and commitment to Telangana by setting up the second state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Hyderabad.

Schneider Electric is the global leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation with presence in over 100 countries.

Meanwhile, another release said Switzerland-headquartered Ferring Pharma announced establishing a 60 million Euros worth formulation plant in Hyderabad.