Alstom to start component supply for Vande Bharat sleeper trains from next fiscal
Alstom’s component manufacturing facility in Coimbatore
French major Alstom will start supplying traction components for Vande Bharat sleeper trains from the next financial year.
These components will be manufactured at Alstom’s Maneja facility in Gujarat and will be used in the Vande Bharat sleeper trains that are set to be produced at Integral Coach Factory in Chennai .
In January, Alstom was awarded €144 million deal for the Vande Bharat sleeper trains that included components and maintenance services.
Champak Panda, Managing Director, Rolling Stock and Components, Alstom India, told newspersons at the Coimbatore facility that the company will be supplying the components for 17 trains, for 18-24 cars each, manufactured at ICF. For the Rail Coach Factory at Kapurtala, the company started delivering the components for Vande Bharat chair car trains. It will supply for 20 trains with 16 cars each, he said.
Panda said its component manufacturing facility at Coimbatore – the largest globally for Alstom – is working on a roadmap to execute over 100 complex projects – like metros or EMUs – by 2026, from the present 83. The company is bullish on demand from both Indian market and on exports, he said. The Coimbatore facility has supplied components to 15 rolling stock sites across five continents, he added.
Alstom also has component manufacturing facilities at Maneja and Savli (both in Gujarat). The total employee count in component manufacturing, including Coimbatore, will be 1,700. The component development site at Bengaluru employs 1,300 people, he said.
On exports, Panda said that from Coimbatore, exports are currently around 60 per cent, and there is scope to increase it to over 70 per cent in future. The company’s manufacturing plants are working on 79 export projects for components alone across Coimbatore (62), Savil (9) and Maneja (8), he added.
(The writer was in Coimbatore at the company’s invitation)
Published on September 8, 2025
