Export of rolling stock! The way forward

 

If the readers have not seen them or similar news items already, they may go through these:

ET Now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InH2UtRdTZ8

News 18:

https://www.news18.com/india/how-india-hopes-to-export-vande-bharat-trains-by-2026-with-railways-pli-scheme-for-wheels-brakes-8546891.html

What stands out is this declaration of the ministry:

Indian Railways (IR) is looking at becoming a major exporter of trains, inter alia, Vande Bharat trains by 2025-26 to markets in Europe, South America and East Asia.

This would be helped by the proposed Productivity Linked (PLI) Scheme to boost local manufacturing.

I begin with the proverbial caveat that, "If wishes would bide, beggars would ride" or simpler, "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride" and also tempted to exclaim, ““if ifs and ands were pots and pans, there'd be no work for tinkers' hands”; my by now hackneyed response to an excessively optimistic declaration.

Setting your sights high indeed befits a resurgent India but perching it at the summit straightaway? Are these wistful desires or is there a strategy in place?

Let me first allocate for some other time this bit about PLI scheme as I have spoken enough in a blog earlier with no clarity forthcoming as yet:

http://anindecisiveindian.blogspot.com/2023/08/train-parts-for-indian-railways-and-pli.html

So, let us first ground ourselves in facts. Where do we stand?

IR has a track record of exporting trains, coaches and locomotives since 1970s and the recipient countries include The Philippines, Tanzania, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Angola, Mozambique, Myanmar, Malaysia, Vietnam, Nepal and Uganda. But nearly all these exports were predicated on an Indian Line of Credit facilitated by G2G agreements. Barring a couple of countries, none of the countries exported to are in the middle/high-level income brackets.

The exports have been limited to diesel rolling stocks or coaches; locomotives, Diesel-Electric Multiple units or locomotive-hauled coaches, on Metre Gauge, Cape Gauge or Broad Gauge. (Not counting the Std. gauge Metro stock exported by private multi-national builders as the designs of these trains were not Indian).

Most of these countries have no electrified tracks and therefore no electric stock has ever been exported. An attempt to export electric locomotives to South Africa in late 90s was a damp squib.

Does it mean that we should not venture to craft persuasive proposals to export to wealthier countries? Not at all, we must but keep in mind some caveats, approaches and possible strategies:

Eschew grandiose announcement made without an action plan. For example, exporting Vande Bharats to countries which do not buy much from more advanced China so that is a remote prospect. Similarly, not to our familiar countries as most of them do not have electrified tracks; one is remined of a laughable announcement by a RITES senior executive that they were planning to export these trains to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan (😀).

Empower IR Production Units to quote directly and not necessarily through other railway PSUs. I have been associated with most of the projects for export of diesel locos, coaches and DEMUs and dare say that this would cut down babudom involved and help greatly.

List out target middle-income countries which have the money but not the expertise to design and manufacture modern rolling stock and target them. These countries would usually have SG, CG or MG systems and we should be ready to design and manufacture SG and MG/CG protos at our expense for trials in these countries; the scope to export would be tremendous once we establish our credentials in these gauges. Thankfully, with the Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR coming up, we can test and validate even SG stock in the country. It may also require developing a diesel version of Train 18/Vande Bharat.

Continue to export locomotives, coaches and DEMUs to less wealthy countries as we do today but since Chinese offer big competition, more stress on quality is necessary. I am glad to state that the DEMUs exported by ICF from 2018 onwards to Sri Lanka were declared by Sri Lankans as superior to similar Chines stock.

Unlike what some detractors, who habitually shoot the messenger, might think, I do hold a sincere aspiration that IR would undertake the initiative towards exporting rolling stock to make India a global player and the current circumstances do necessitate prompt action.

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