Toshiba Corp. will build a factory in India to make parts for trains following plans by General Electric Co. and Alstom SA to set up manufacturing facilities in the country after winning deals to build locomotives.
The Japanese company will make train control and power conversion systems in the factory in Hyderabad, located in southern India, from April 2017, Tokyo-based Toshiba said in a statement Thursday, without saying how much it will spend. Toshiba Transmission and Distribution Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd. will build the facilities and expects to have more than 100 employees by 2020.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is striving to modernize Asia's oldest rail network as part of a push for an 8.5 trillion rupee ($128 billion) revamp of the railway through 2020. GE and Alstom last year won orders worth $5.6 billion from state-owned Indian Railways to build locomotives, while Japan signed a $15 billion contract to provide a bullet train system.
Toshiba is targeting India amid increasing demand for government-led construction of dedicated freight corridors and subway systems in major cities, the company said. The factory may eventually also supply markets in the Middle East and Africa, it said.
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