Manufacturing Plant In India On The Cards For Scomi

By M Saraswathi NEW DELHI, April 11 (Bernama) -- Several Indian companies are courting Scomi Group for a possible joint venture to set-up a monorail related manufacturing plant in India, amid growing demand for the infrastructure service here. Group Chief Executive Shah Hakim Zain said a number of big names in India have approached Scomi for a possible tie-up. "We are already talking to several potential partners for a joint venture to set-up a manufacturing facility in India. We are constantly receiving proposals," he told Bernama in a telephone interview. There is volume for such facility in India as the market size for monorail business in India is estimated at a whopping US$15 billion over five years, he said. However, he declined to reveal in which state Scomi planned to locate the plant. Under its transport solutions segment, Scomi focused on the manufacturing and design of monorail systems, buses, special purpose vehicles, rail wagons and defence vehicle solutions. Listing its India unit on the Bombay Stock Exchange was another option for Scomi as it expanded its footprint in the region, said Shah. "I think listing is one of the options, we want to make sure the operations are localised by raising capitals locally, which will enable us to expand faster in that market," he said when asked if Scomi would list the unit in India. After successfully implementing India's first monorail project in Mumbai, the Scomi brand was well recognised and the company can capitalise on it, he said. Scomi Engineering Bhd and its consortium partner, Larsen & Toubro, had secured the RM1.846 billion Mumbai Monorail project in November 2008. To-date, besides the Mumbai project, Scomi Engineering has entered into a joint bidding agreement with Geodesic Techniques Pvt Ltd to build the proposed 59km monorail in Bangalore. It has also entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with TATA Realty and Infrastructure Ltd, July last year, to pursue a modern mass transportation system project in Ludhiana. It also bid for monorail projects in Chennai and Delhi and, entered into a three year MoU with Engineering Projects (India) Ltd to execute projects for the construction of monorails and mass rapid transit system both in India and abroad. Back home, he said the government's decision to revive the Putrajaya monorail project depended very much on the traffic growth in the administrative capital. "We have had some preliminary discussion on that," said Shah who declined to elaborate. As for the new four-car trains for KL Monorail, he said that it would be available by year-end. "The new generation car trains are bigger, spacious, comfortable with the new suspension and signalling. It is an upgrade of the overall system with better safety standards as well," Shah said, adding that the newer car trains would also reduce operating cost. -- BERNAMA