American Railcar Industries, Inc. has announced that the Indian Railways has awarded them a ‘Global Tender’ to design and develop railcars for service in India for a total contract price of $9.6 million.
“ARI is very excited about the opportunity to work with Indian Railways. We believe this agreement will assist in establishing ARI as a high quality and dependable producer of freight railcars for use in the Indian market,” said James Cowan, President and CEO.
Under this agreement, ARI will work with Indian Railways to assess the operating conditions for freight railcar traffic, design four new railcar types for heavier axle loads and build six railcar prototypes in the United States.
Throughout the project, ARI will provide training to Indian Railways personnel on design, testing, manufacturing practices, quality assurance and maintenance of these railcar designs.
ARI will receive payment based upon the completion of certain design, manufacturing and development activities. ARI expects the contract to extend over several years with almost half of the steps being completed within the first couple of years.
The construction of the Company’s Indian joint venture’s state of the art railcar manufacturing facility near Chandigarh, India is currently underway.
The joint venture Amtek Railcar Industries Private Limited, of which ARI has a 50% ownership, may utilise the railcar designs being developed under this agreement, or similar railcar designs, for the joint venture’s product offerings in India.
