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today 137
India’s railway network - the fourth largest in the world - continues to expand to meet growing needs. Plasser India is responding to the increased demand for construction and maintenance machines by continuously adapting its production capacity. The new factory in Karjan began operating in 2019. Another large-scale expansion is currently under way.
The story of Plasser India started in 1965: as a Plasser & Theurer service station in India. The factory in Faridabad, in the state of Haryana, began production in 1967. It has been successfully manufacturing high-capacity machines to this day. Over the past 55 years, Plasser India has been right on track, producing over 800 new machines for all kinds of track maintenance work. During this time, Indian production increased to 100 %.
The new production plant in Karjan is a part of Plasser India’s strategy for growth. It has the latest technology and a green building concept, laying the foundation for the company’s development in the future.
Siegfried Fink
Managing Director at Plasser India
As a company acting in the name of sustainability, Plasser India ensures it uses natural resources sparingly and impacts the environment as little as possible. The new manufacturing facility has an efficient, environmentally conscious approach to power and resources. It has already been certified as a green building.
Indian Railways form the backbone of the country’s transport requirements: they play a decisive role in the country’s growth. Expanded production capacities were needed there to effectively meet the demand generated by Indian Railways and, increasingly, by private stakeholders. This was especially true with regard to the export market. By expanding production capacities, Plasser India is taking important steps to contribute to the government’s “Make in India” initiative even more in the future. The new construction project began in mid-2017 at the site in Karjan, close to Vadodara, located in the state of Gujarat. The new location of Plasser India is a 110,000 m² piece of land with approximately 46,000 m² of developed area. The newly built factory was completed in a record time of only 2.5 years. It officially went into operation in October 2019 in the presence of Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Vijay Rupani.
The factory in Karjan is a state-of-the-art production facility that houses all machine manufacturing processes under one roof. This includes machine development with an in-house design centre, pre-assembly processes, assembly, inspection, and delivery. The advantage is that individual processing and manufacturing steps are combined into one. The site also serves as a local hub for suppliers in the railway industry. As a result, it is easier to achieve global quality standards for our products.
We are continuing to expand our manufacturing capacities to also be able to meet market requirements from various railway construction segments in the future. During Expansion Phase 2, a production facility for tamping units will be built in the Karjan factory. With an area of approximately 72,000 m², it will also be possible to produce these essential components of our tamping machines directly on-site. As a result, we will be able to reduce lead times, costs, and our dependency on imports. Additionally, we can improve our competitiveness on the global market. Further, this production plant will be used for refurbishing some of the key components in our machines.
The factory in Karjan has a first-rate training centre. It is where various training courses on our products are offered to machine operators, railway engineers, and our employees. Simulators for control systems (Computer Working System CWS), process control systems, measuring systems (CMS), or the ALC automatic guiding computer are based on technical developments of the latest machine models and ensure user-orientated training.
