Titagarh Wagons’ plant in Italy flags first aluminium train coaches for Pune Metro

On 31st July 2021, India’s leading designer and manufacturer of modern rolling stock Titagarh Wagons Ltd stated that its plant in Italy has flagged the first train for Pune Metro coach, made of aluminium out of the 34 trains.

In August 2019, Titagarh Firema SpA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of city-based Titagarh Wagons bagged an INR 1100 crore international bid to supply Pune Metro as many as 102 ultra-modern aluminium-bodied coaches, however, each train will comprise of three coaches.

The company said that the first prototype of it was launched at a virtual ceremony in presence of the Ambassador of India to Italy, Neena Malhotra, Ambassador of Italy to India, Vincenzo de Luca, Maharashtra Metro Cooperation Managing Director Brijesh Dixit and others.

It was outlaid that three of the 34 trains will be manufactured in Italy and the rest in India, while Titagarh Wagons has upgraded its plant in Kolkata to produce those 31 trains. The first wave Covid-19 pandemic had delayed the launch of the train.

Umesh Chowdhary, Vice Chairman & Managing Director of Titagarh said: "We began our journey to manufacture passenger trains (EMU) in India in 2007 with a dream to design and manufacture modern passenger trains for the Indian Metro System. With this first train being constructed by us for Maha Metro, it is a moment of great pride and satisfaction for Titagarh and a dream come true for me personally."

 Chowdhary also thanked the dignitaries present on the virtual platform for their encouragement and support and also expressed his gratitude and compliments to the entire Titagarh team in India and Italy who worked tirelessly to reach this momentous occasion.

Sunil Mathur, Director Rolling Stock complimented Titagarh for being able to design and manufacture a completely new train in such a short time despite the hardships countered on account of the global pandemic. He further appreciated the modern and safety features inbuilt into the train and complimented the Titagarh team for this major milestone achievement.

H E Ambassador of India to Italy, Dr Neena Malhotra while complimenting Titagarh said: “India has a huge demand for new modern rolling stock and metro coaches and encouraged Titagarh to explore more such opportunities such as Pune Metro in order to participate in the nation-building process.

Francesco Varriale who spoke on behalf of the Italian Ambassador, stated: “Titagarh was a flag bearer of the Indo Italian cooperation and applauded the efforts of Titagarh Wagons Limited and Titagarh Firema S.p.A for their joint cooperation.”

Chowdhary stated: “Titagarh was committed towards the 'Make in India' and Self-reliant India programs of the Government and mentioned that Titagarh has set up an integrated design centre between India and Italy which would enable Titagarh not only to Make in India but to design and manufacture in India.”

He further added: “Titagarh's vision of becoming a global player for different mobility solutions and was confident that this milestone of the first train coming out of Indo Italian partnership would become a foundation for future global successes.”