Indian Railways bags Rs.680 cr export order from Sri Lanka

The Dollar Business Bureau 

Indian Railways will export to Sri Lanka train sets and modern locomotives worth around Rs.680 crore, in the largest shipment order for the Railways.

Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES), the export arm of Railways, has got its biggest order from the Sri Lankan Railways for exporting 6 diesel multiple units (DMU) train sets and 10 broad gauge diesel locomotives.

The separate locomotive is not required in DMU train sets as the engines are integrated into one or more than one of its coaches.

All the train sets and locomotives would be installed with the cutting-edge technology and are manufactured in Chennai and Varanasi, according to a senior official from Railway Ministry.

The supply contract will be financed under the Line of Credit by India to Sri Lanka, which was announced in 2011, and the supply will be met in coming two years, the official added.

At present, RITES is executing a supply contract of exporting 18 locomotives to the Railways of Myanmar.

Earlier, it had supplied 20 DMU train sets, 3 locomotives to Sri Lankan Railways, in addition to providing expertise for establishing maintenance facilities for railways and to impart training to the railway officials of the country during 2008-12 period.

RITES has been actively pursuing supply of locomotives and train coaches to Bangladesh. It has already exported around 120 LHB coaches from its factory in Kapurthala.