The Indian Railways has tied up with the Canadian transport solutions major Bombardier Transportation to produce electronic freight locomotives in the country for the proposed Rs 22,000-crore dedicated freight corridors on the eastern and western routes.

Bombardier produces regional aircraft and business jets to rail transportation equipment.
Bombardier Transportation officials have met Railways' officials for
exploring the option of setting up a greenfield electronic freight locomotive manufacturing facility and an assembling unit in India.

Analysts feels that Railways will need at least 500-600 electronic freight locomotives, besides the same number of diesel locomotives for dedicated freight corridors in the first phase. "Conservative estimates for a normal locomotive are between Rs 13 crore and Rs 15 crore. The investment required for manufacturing electronic freight locomotives is around Rs 10,000 crore," they added.

It is also learnt that, Railways would also pick up a stake in this project.

Bombardier President, Transportation, Andre Navarri confirmed talks with Indian Railways, adding, We are keen to take part in the dedicated freight corridor project, but the nature of the agreement with the Indian government is yet to be finalized, said Bombardier President, Transportation, Andre Navarri. We are talking to Indian Railway, he added.

Railways will come up with a detailed plan and tenders for the proposed corridor by mid-November.

We are also was planning to bid for the second phase of the Delhi Metro rail project and rail link to the Commonwealth Games Village, Bombardier President and Managing Director for India (Transportation) Rajeev Jyothi disclosed

"The firm is looking at opportunities for creating a rail link to the Delhi international
airport, which can cut short travel time by at least 35 minutes," Jyothi revealed.

Recently, Bombardier had tied up with the Reliance Energy, Anil Ambani-promoted to bid for the Rs 6,000 crore Hyderabad Metro project.

According to sources, the partnership with Reliance Energy, for the time being, is confined to only the Hyderabad project. The alliance may not be there for other upcoming projects