Texmaco, TrinityRail and Touax to invest Rs 2000 crore to boost rail lease business

Texmaco Rail & Engineering, Touax Group and TrinityRail Global will jointly invest around Rs 2,000 crore in the next three years to procure 100 new rakes (around 6500 wagons) for their private wagon leasing business in India, company officials said Wednesday.

These new rakes will supplement the nearly 2000 wagons already operated by Touax Texmaco Railcar Leasing, the existing joint venture between Kolkata's Texmaco, and the French operational leasing company. US-headquartered TrinityRail Global is the new entrant in this joint venture with a 32% stake purchase announced last month.

Also read: Texmaco, Touax and TrinityRail form railcar leasing venture in India


Under the revised structure, Texmaco and Touax will hold 34% each in the joint venture which now has three partners.

“The government has allowed private players to design wagons. This partnership seeks to tap the opportunity,” said S K Poddar, Executive Chairman at Texmaco Rail & Engineering. Speaking to journalists in New Delhi, he said the wagon industry expects immediate demand for around 30,000 units developed on the new designs.

According to CareEdge, Texmaco is currently the largest player in India’s domestic wagon manufacturing industry with annual capacity to manufacture 13,000 units.

The national transporter announced a liberalised wagon design policy last month. Under the proposed policy, industries can modify wagon designs as per their needs. The responsibility of ensuring wagon safety will remain with Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) and the Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety (CCRS).

A call to change the policy was taken after discussions between Indian Railways, industries, trade bodies, and major freight customers associated with commodities that have significant potential for rail transportation.

“Industry representatives suggested that if wagon designs are customized according to the specific handling, loading, unloading, and transportation requirements of different commodities, rail transport could be adopted on a much wider scale,” the Indian Railways had said.