France’s Alstom is a strategic partner for Indian Railways, involved in a variety of projects that support India’s rail modernisation. It leverages a comprehensive suite of digital technologies, including AI, IoT, big data analytics, digital twins, and virtual reality, to optimise railway operations, enhance maintenance, and improve passenger experience. In this interview, Olivier Loison, managing director, Alstom India, speaks to Sudhir Chowdhary on how the train maker is powering India’s rail revolution through innovation, localisation, and smart infrastructure. Excerpts:
How is Alstom India modernising India’s rail network? Tell us about your key engagements.
We are driving the rail network modernisation in India through advanced manufacturing, maintenance, and signalling technology across urban, regional, and mainline sectors. In urban mobility, Alstom supplies rolling stock, signaling, and maintenance to nearly all metro projects, including major cities such as Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kanpur, Agra, Indore, Bhopal, and Kochi. We are committed to supporting newer cities like Bhubaneshwar, Patna, Nashik, and Visakhapatnam. Some of the recent milestones include delivering driverless trains for Chennai Metro and CBTC signaling for Mumbai Metro. For mainline operations, Alstom’s WAG-12B electric locomotives are upgrading freight transport and helping Indian Railways achieve decarbonisation targets. The company has also provided electrification and signaling along 343 km of the eastern dedicated freight corridor.
Alstom has also supplied ‘Made in India’ NaMo Bharat trains to NCRTC, India’s first and only semi high-speed regional rail system. This provided an opportunity for Alstom to also make the world debut of European Train Control Systems (ETCS) for this service. With several fresh orders for Vande Bharat, Mumbai and Delhi metro, and more in our bag this financial year, we are strongly positioned to drive India’s rail revolution. Our six manufacturing sites, five engineering centres, and more than 12,800 employees, enable this large-scale development.
What is the role of AI, IoT and automation in enhancing safety and efficiency in rail networks? How is Alstom deploying them in its projects here?
AI is set to transform rail by boosting efficiency, safety, and sustainability. Alstom is developing reliable AI-based mobility solutions to drive this change. At Alstom, we view AI as a crucial differentiator that accelerates value creation and enhances the efficiency of railways. It is integral to every aspect of Alstom’s operations, from predictive maintenance to optimising processes and energy usage. These technologies are crucial for delivering unprecedented levels of service, protecting passengers and infrastructure, and meeting the increasing demand for smart and sustainable public transport in rapidly urbanising areas.
Our advanced Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) signaling solutions, such as those in Bengaluru Metro and Mumbai Metro’s Aqua Line, exemplify how automation elevates passenger experience. CBTC uses radio communication for timely and accurate train control, improving punctuality, optimising energy consumption, and reducing travel time. Building on the success of Delhi metro’s operational driverless metro, we are also rolling out fully driverless train operations in Bengaluru Metro – Phase 2 using our advanced Urbalis platform. Driverless technology improves the efficiency, safety, and overall performance of rail transportation systems.
Similarly, Alstom’s HealthHub predictive maintenance technology, deployed on the WAG-12B electric locomotives uses AI-based data analytics to monitor critical components, predict potential failures, and ensure high availability. This allows for the collection and analysis of millions of data points, enhancing the safety, security, and dependability of rail infrastructure and enabling predictive analytics and asset management. In an era where railways are increasingly reliant on digital technologies, robust cybersecurity is essential. Hence, we remain focused on developing advanced cybersecurity solutions to protect critical data, communication systems, control systems, and network infrastructure from potential threats.
What makes India a critical focus area for Alstom?
India stands as a rapidly growing market for both mainline and urban mobility, driven by the government’s focus on modern, rail-based mass transit solutions. Backed by our extensive global knowledge, significant India footprint, and ambition for sustainable mobility, Alstom is a preferred partner for manufacturing, engineering, and innovating end-to-end rail products and solutions tailored to India’s needs. Supporting the government’s modernisation initiatives, Alstom has introduced several breakthrough technologies in India, encompassing world-class rolling stock, rail components, signaling, and services.
We have built a robust local industrial ecosystem supported by extensive development capabilities and supply chain. This has allowed us to Make in India, not only to meet the domestic demands but also significantly contribute to exports. This is in line with the Viksit Bharat vision of the government of India. To that end, currently, almost 33% of our global engineering activities are executed in India, and we aim to increase this further, strengthening our contribution to domestic and international needs.
India is on track to elevate the rail network with the sizeable budget allocations and announcement of several new projects – be it urban or mainline rail, there is a clear vision to give passengers a noteworthy and safe rail experience. Our global exposure in this space positions us very strongly to address these needs. Right from components for Vande Bharat, to rolling stock, signalling and maintenance solutions for passenger and freight transportation, our know-how to develop products and solutions for India and the world, is very strong, making us command a leadership position in the rail space.
How are you looking at expansion in the future?
Alstom has established a strong presence in India with an extensive manufacturing footprint. Our facility in Sri City (Andhra Pradesh) manufactures rolling stock for both domestic and international projects. It boasts the longest dynamic test track in India and achieves approximately 90% localisation in its production. Savli (Gujarat) is one of our leading sites for the manufacturing, testing, and commissioning of trains for domestic projects. It also plays a crucial role in our global supply chain by exporting bogie frames and flat packs internationally.
Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) is Alstom’s largest components manufacturing facility globally. It specialises in the mass production and testing of converters, motors, and electrical components, supplying to over 70 projects across five continents. Through our joint venture with the ministry of railways, we have established a manufacturing facility in Madhepura (Bihar). This is the manufacturing epicentre of India’s most powerful 12000hp loco, the WAG12B.
Maneja (Gujarat) features converter testing labs and in-house testing capabilities for inverters and auxiliary converters. It also utilises robotic IGVT screen printing for high-speed production, supporting both domestic and global projects. The Kolkata facility fabricates 20 WAG 12B Car Body Shells using advanced CNC plate cutting, bending, and vertical machining centres.
What role does Alstom India play in driving global rail innovation?
India serves as a strategic hub for both local and global markets, adapting advanced technologies to meet its unique mobility needs while ensuring cost efficiency and sustainability. With a strong pool of talent, India is leading the development of digital rail technologies such as predictive maintenance, signaling automation, and condition-based monitoring, enhancing safety, reliability, and operational efficiency. A core aspect of our strategy is to accelerate local development of products and solutions, strongly supporting the Make in India initiative. We’ve invested EUR 40 million over the past decade to develop the signaling lab infrastructure, including the latest addition the Digital Experience Centre. It also houses a centre of excellence for cybersecurity. Notably, the signaling systems for around 40 metro projects, including those in Sydney and Montreal, are designed in India. Not just that, our innovations in rolling stock development and manufacturing in India, is helping upscale the industry’s outlook.
What is Alstom’s next big bet in India?
India will continue to be Alstom’s domestic and global powerhouse in manufacturing and engineering, scaling our local and export business potential. Given our depth and breadth of domestic market experience, we are well positioned to take on the big-ticket projects in high speed, urban and mainline rail space. Rail maintenance is a growing domain for asset longevity and reliability in India’s advanced railway ecosystem. As tenders are getting shaped with maintenance bundled-in and the sector is also gradually moving to a total cost of ownership model, we poised for a consistent growth in this domain too.
