“The shift is happening in India, but globally aluminium is the standard for high-speed, semi-high speed and metro coaches”, Prithish Chowdhary, CMO, Titagarh Group

AlCircle had the opportunity to interview Mr Prithish Chowdhary, Chief Marketing Officer of Titagarh Group, and the discussion centered on manufacturing aluminium train coaches.

AlCircle: Can you tell us about Titagarh's journey with its state-of-the-art manufacturing of aluminium coaches, which are used globally?

Prithish Chowdhary: In order to properly answer the question, we need to tell a bit about the background, of where Titagarh actually started. So, when we started as a wagon manufacturer in 1997, our capacity was very minor, something about half a wagon per day at then and since then we managed to establish ourselves as the largest wagon manufacturer in the country. Because of these changes in the wagon industry in about 2007-2008 we acquired a factory in Hind Motor Complex, Uttar Para, where we used to build EMU & MEMU for the Indian Railways. Now at that point, there was a brief idea that we were building EMU and why not we get into Metro trains as well? Then in 2015, we managed to acquire an Italian company called Titagarh Firema and through this acquisition, we were actually able to get the intellectual property (IP) rights and the designs and the technology to build the state-of-art metro coaches in India. Thereby making us the only Indian multinational company in this field, as well as the only Indian company to have our own IPRs, own technology and own designs to build such state-of-art metro coaches and semi-high speed trains. So, effectively the journey started with the act of building our EMUs in 2007, but in 2015 when we acquired the Italian entity is that when we got access to knowhow the technology, the designs and to all the processes that owe to building these trains.

ACircle: In your opinion, how will aluminium train coaches change the dynamics of the railway industry?

Prithish Chowdhary: So, aluminium coaches are not that is something new, aluminium coaches are the global standards. Maglev is aluminium; the high-speed trains in Russia are aluminium, and most of the global projects are aluminium trains. It’s just that in India because for a long period stainless steel was the prominent technology in the country, there was no need to move from that, but now people understand the benefits that aluminium can offer to the end-user, which is the government or the daily passengers that travel on this coaches on a daily basis. So, that shift is happening in India, but globally aluminium is the standard for high-speed coaches, semi-high-speed coaches and metros.

AlCircle: Is the price of aluminium a factor? Will Titagarh manufacture aluminium coaches in Italy and import them to India?

Prithish Chowdhary: The price is not much different, it is just that aluminium is a much-upgraded technology and long pieces of extruded aluminium, which are not produced in India at the moment; so, even we have to import those extrusions.

We have a manufacturing facility in Uttar Para, West Bengal, and the EMU facility that has been completely upgraded and derived and that is the state-of-art facility for metros, etc. So, we delivered the first aluminium metro coaches to Pune Metro, which is the first aluminium car body in the country. The first three trains were delivered from Italy and the remaining were delivered from India.

AlCircle: In what ways does Titagarh Group support the ‘Self-Reliant India’ campaign?

Prithish Chowdhary: That’s a very important question; we as a group believe that the recent policies of Make in India have been game changers for people like us. Earlier, let’s say 5-7 years back there weren’t Indian companies in the phase that we are in, so all the metros were bid by foreign players like Alstom and Indian companies were not eligible to participate in these projects. It’s the Self-reliant India campaign enabled us to participate in these projects and now it’s a matter of great pride that we are able to design, manufacture and supply these coaches in India and eventually bring the complete infrastructure in India and cater to the whole world, which is the true sense of ‘Self-reliant’ India.

AlCircle: How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected Titagarh Firema's production of aluminium coaches?

Prithish Chowdhary: So, the pandemic, as everybody was aware that Italy was one of the first and worst hit nations. The effect was definitely pronounced, with a more substantial loss for not just Titagarh Firema but all companies in Italy in the livelihoods of people in corporate affairs and everywhere. But, now the situation is bouncing back, so in the last one year or one and a half years, the pandemic has been slowly dying down hopefully. The Italian government and the European Union as a whole announced several schemes, and several policies wherein they are to boost and rejuvenate the economies that took a little downturn during the Covid pandemic.

So, yes, definitely there was a small hit in the production and operations, but now I think it is bouncing back from it. We have started the journey, where we used to be and I think we are in a good place.

AlCircle: What are the considerable advantages of using aluminium over steel?

Prithish Chowdhary: If we talk about the advantages of using aluminium, I have to be a little bit technical on this side. Firstly aluminium coaches have a lower tear rate, as aluminium is much lighter than steel. So, this gives you the advantage of the wheel ware, as there is much lesser wheel ware on the coaches, again the track tear rates are lower due to the lighter weight. The aluminium carbody can be painted, whereas the stainless steel body is not usually painted, so that makes repairs and basic repairs and maintenance much easier because you can just paint over it and it’s as good as new. Then because of the lower tare weight, the energy consumption of the entire life cycle of the project is substantially low compared to stainless steel coaches, as the number of people in the coach cannot be increased, but the tare weight can be decreased, resulting in energy savings. When we talk about vibrations and insulations, because of the extrusion sizes and double body extrusions, the sound and heat insulation of these coaches are much better than the stainless coach.

There are several advantages that many peoples have started to recognize and started to appreciate, so in the recent ‘Vande Bharat’ tender, there was an incentive for providing lighter-weight coaches. So, now we are hopeful that going forward this will become a standard

AlCircle: Titagarh has played an important role in developing and supplying 300 km/h electric trains in Italy, how do you portray that?

Prithish Chowdhary: This was actually done before the days of our acquisitions of Tiatagarh Firema. In the days of Firema, they were working with multiple other MNCs like Hitachi, etc. and in this collaboration, they developed the Italian ISP. So, Titagarh India didn’t have much of a role to play and I don’t want to take the credit for something that we didn’t do. But that said now, we have the IPRs because we have bought the company and all the IPRs historically belonging to Firema, belong to Titagarh India.

AlCircle: What are the new projects and investments Titagarh Group plans for the current financial year?

Prithish Chowdhary: We have recently announced that in a five years plan from 2020-25, we are going to invest INR 1000 crores of CAPEX in India that will be spread over across the various businesses that we have like shipbuilding, metros, etc. We are not really looking to diversify outside these verticals for the moment because we have our hands full. First, we want to establish ourselves as the global leader in the verticals and set our feet on the ground before we start looking at other items and products. That said we are always doing innovations in these fields, so recently we were lucky enough to supply the Bangalore Metro coaches, which are stainless steel coaches and that makes us the only facility in the country that has aluminium and as well as stainless steel coaches manufacturing in the same block. This contract was awarded to China-based CRRC Corporation Ltd and we are going to supply them. The supply will start next year (2023).

AlCircle: Why the Italian government intends to acquire a stake in Titagarh Firema?

Prithish Chowdhary: I think that’s a question, only they (the Italian Govt.) can answer. But I don’t think, it is fair for me to answer this question. As of now, Titagarh Group is a 100% stakeholder of Titagarh Firema.