France-based global leader in smart sustainable mobility solutions Alstom recently won a contract to design, manufacture and supply more than a dozen battery-electric trains for New Zealand. Reports say that this contract is worth €538 million ( roughly Rs.4,842 crore+).

Champak Panda, the Managing Director of Alstom India's Rolling Stock & Components division shared on Monday that Alstom India's manufacturing facility at Savli, Gujarat will manufacture the train while the traction systems for these trains will made at its Coimbatore facility, which is Alstom's largest components manufacturing facility in Asia.

Mr.Panda was here in Coimbatore on Monday, and he interacted with the press and media who were invited for an exclusive tour of the 15-acre super-factory located at SN Palayam, Sulur.

This facility here develops traction systems, auxiliary converters, driver desks, rolling stock looms and delivers to the Asian, European, North American, South American and Australian markets. Alstom's converters are designed in such a way that it can operate with any kind of input power and it is future-ready. The technology available with Alstom differentiates it from its competitors.

It was shared during the factory tour that the super-factory employs 850+ people and more than 20% of them are women. It serves as a centre of excellence for mass production and testing of these sophisticated rolling stock components. 60-65% of these components manufactured in Alstom's Coimbatore facility is meant for exports and the 35-40% goes for domestic utilization. 

While Alstom India is currently catering to 79 export projects for components from its three sites in India, its Coimbatore facility alone handles 62 projects and the rest are handled by its Gujarat facilities in Savli and Maneja.

The super-factory currently executes 83 complex project every year and there are plans to augment the facility's capacity to handle more than 100 projects by 2026.  Adequate plans and space have been created for future expansion as well.