Bombardier, which recently expanded its presence in India through its transportation business dedicated to railway equipment, has set its major railway vehicle manufacturing site on stream.

The new production site, representing an investment of 33 million euros, will directly generate 750 new jobs dedicated to railway vehicle production. In addition, a further 2000 indirect jobs will be created based on increased activity in Bombardier’s local supplier base. The company said that the new investment underlines Bombardier Transportation’s long-term commitment to India, a market where the company has been active for almost 35 years This will also make Vadodara the only city in the world equipped to deliver all key electrical and mechanical components for the manufacturing of railway vehicles.

The company said that its Savli manufacturing site, built in a record 18 months, will be operating soon. The first railway cars are expected to roll out of the assembly lines at Salvi by March 2009. Bombardier’s new manufacturing site in India was designed and built from scratch following the most modern industrial standards worldwide and based on a transfer of technology from Bombardier’s state-of-the-art railway vehicle manufacturing plant located in Gorlitz, Germany, it added.

Meanwhile, the new manufacturing site at Vadodara is set to serve projects in India as well as in the South East Asia region, the first order of which being the delivery of 424 Bombardier Movia metro cars to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation .

Bombardier Transportation has been present in India for over 35 years, supplying the Indian Railways with technologically advanced rail products, such as the WAP5 and WAG9 electric locomotives for passenger and freight applications and the Mumbai Traffic Management System. This system controls the 60-km rail stretch around Mumbai, which is one of the world’s heaviest rail commuter traffic areas. It is along this route that the Western Railways runs as many as 1,000 trains everyday.