Titagarh’s Indo-France collaboration to spearhead foray into global Metro, Monorail & high speed rail markets

Titagarh’s Indo-France collaboration to spearhead foray into global Metro, Monorail & high speed rail markets

The Ambassador of France to India H. E. Mr. François RICHIER confers the insignia of the French Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite (Knight in the Order of Merit) on Mr. Umesh Chowdhary, Vice Chairman and MD, Titagarh Group of companies.

December 31, 2014: The Titagarh Group, a diversified business entity with interests in coach manufacturing, shipbuilding, engineering, defence and agricultural equipment, seeks to enhance its global presence and tap the global Metro, Monorail and high speed market through its French subsidiary. From making wagons for the Indian and European markets, Titagarh Group is entering into various international markets and has supplied wagons to Bangladesh, Myanmar and other African countries. Titagarh France has historically been a supplier of wagons to various African countries, particularly the francophonies. The synergy between India and Titagarh France, in terms of design and manufacturing, will help the Group in making an impact in the international markets.

The Ambassador of France to India H. E. Mr. François RICHIER has conferred the insignia of the French Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite (Knight in the Order of Merit) on Mr. Umesh Chowdhary, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Titagarh Group of companies. The Vice Chairman and Managing Director of the Titagarh Group, is well known and deeply respected in France for his contribution in turning around one of the key wagon making Industries in France through his leadership at TWL engineering Group in India.

Mr. Chowdhary has been actively involved in enhancing the turnover of the company. From initial revenue of Rs. 10 crores estimated in the first year of operation, the company has clocked revenue of Rs. 325 crores in the previous financial year. It has a very healthy order book. In 2013, Titagarh Wagons AFR S.A. (TWAFR), the French subsidiary of Titagarh Wagons Ltd (TWL) bagged an order from French Railways for 400 hopper cereal wagons worth Euro 39 million (around Rs. 275 crores). In the process, Mr. Chowdhary has maintained a very close contact and relationship with all stakeholders and has also had the opportunity to interact with French President Mr. François Hollande about Titagarh’s ventures in France.

Titagarh France bagged contracts for their higher payload capacity—the AFR 22 bogey can hold up to 125 cubic metres, 25 percent more than European competitors. The lightweight bogey made for a heavyweight deal and more followed, culminating in a German client putting in an order for big-ticket cement wagons recently. TWAFR is also vying for a contract of 300 grain wagons, where margins are 60 percent higher than those for petroleum tank wagons.

During the process of this journey Mr. Chowdhary has gained a lot of respect and trust from the authorities and as a result of which the French Republic has appointed Mr. Chowdhary as ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite’ (Knight in the National Order of Merit), which is one of the highest civilian order awarded to any foreign national, as a recognition of his outstanding and zealous contribution to the bilateral ties between India and France in the economic area.With this award Mr. Chowdhary joins a very elite club of members of the Order such as King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, Queen Sonja of Norway, Marshal Josip Broz Tito statesman (Yugoslavia), former Prime Minister of Nepal Surya Bahadur Thapa, who have also been awarded this honour.       

Titagarh Wagons was incorporated in 1997 as one of the start ups in the wagon manufacturing field and has emerged to be one of the largest wagon manufacturing group in India and in the Western Europe. Today, Titagarh group is concentrating on various verticals which are: Railways, Defense and Agricultural Equipment. Apart from the above, the Titagarh Group is also a leading manufacturer of cast manganese steel crossings, bogies and coupling system for the international markets.

Titagarh Group’s subsidiary Cimmco Ltd., is ideally suited to cater to the various defence manufacturing projects. Cimmco has a 200-acre facility in the NCR region which Titgarh group intends to leverage for manufacturing various defence and defence related products. Titagarh Group already manufactures various equipment for the Defence and has now an order book of Rs. 130 crores and has participated / been issued RFI’s for many large projects  in the Defence  arena. Owing to the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Government of India, the Group will be scouting for technology partners in this space to establish a meaningful presence as a defence company.

Titagarh recently created a subsidiary called Titagarh Agrico Ltd, in order to manufacture agricultural tractors. The new venture has received an initial approval from Central Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute. The Group intends to scale up the tractor business over the next few years as it has identified the agricultural belt as one of the potentials growth areas of the country.