Completely bullish on the India growth story and having firmed up major investments for various facilities in the country, Alstom, the global leader in transport infrastructure, power generation and transmission said the company expects long-term visibility and long-term stability in policies related to infrastructure.
Talking to The Hindu , company’s country president, India and South Asia, Sunand Sharma said stability of the policy is extremely important in infrastructure sector of any kind. For example, he said Delhi Metro constructing more and more kilometres is no longer a story unless something goes wrong. Huge investments have gone in to the infrastructure of the Delhi Metro and it is held as a great example for the world. “In the metro space, Delhi Metro has become the yardstick of measurement. They are the already advisors to so many metros in India, whether it is Bangalore, whether it is Chennai, Jaipur or Kochi. I think the metro story will continue to roll out in a nice way,’’ he added.
Referring to the progress of Chennai’s Metro rail project, he said it was initiated in 2007. “As a supplier, I can say that it is under construction and progressing on time. Alstom will supply Chennai metro’s public operator with 42 train sets composed of four cars each. As a multi-specialist rail transport solutions supplier, Alstom has previously provided train control and signalling systems for the metro of Delhi and the metro of Bangalore,’’ he said.
Asked about the role of Alstom Transport Software Development Centre in Bangalore, he said it significantly supports global R&D and product engineering activities across the world. It focuses on engineering design, testing and software development activities for covering both mass transit and main line railway markets. The directional thrust of the Centre in Bangalore is to work on a global basis with our teams around the world and it can be for many locations in the world.
Asked about the future of high-speed trains in India, Mr. Sharma said that India is a completely different story. “It is not that you just put it on an existing railway track and move it at a higher speed. An entire integrated point to point system has to be created with its own class of track system, signalling system, rolling stock and then own class of operating methodology. High-speed is not something you can keep away from India. The Indians will demand it, the question is time. Whenever it comes, we will be there.
As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of TGV (an SNCF brand), Alstom is already scripting the next decades of travel at over 250 Km/h.
