SMH Rail wins RM367mil Mumbai monorail contract

Travel technology: An artist impression of the new Mumbai monorail car designed by SMH Rail in collaboration with its Indian technical partner.

KUALA LUMPUR: A home-grown company has been awarded a contract to supply Mumbai with 40 monorail cars in a project worth US$85mil (RM367mil).

It also marks Malaysia’s success in developing local industry players through technology transfer.

The Mumbai monorail, which partially opened in 2014, is the first monorail in India since the Kundala Valley Railway and Patiala State monorail were closed in the 1920s.

The contract commissioning for the additional 10 sets of four cars each includes design, manufacture, supply and testing, with expected completion within the next two years.

In a statement on Friday, the Rawang-based SMH Rail Sdn Bhd said it clinched the contract from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to supply the monorail rolling stock together with its Indian partner, the Hyderabad-based Medha Servo Drives Pte Ltd.

The project is implemented and operated by MMRDA.

This Mumbai monorail started commercial operations with the single line serving 17 stations, generating 1.2 million riders a year.

Nara.

Over the years, the original monorail sets from another supplier had suffered much wear-and-tear, thus MMRDA has been on the lookout for modern equipment to boost the quality of services.

The procurement of the additional cars from SMH Rail is expected to improve the frequency of its monorail services and increase ridership by allowing the possibility of shortening intervals to as low as five minutes between each train.

According to SMH Rail, various refinements had been introduced to make the new cars lighter, thus decreasing the load on the guide way and piers, while being able to carry 10% more passengers.

SMH Rail attributes its global success to the Industrial Collaboration Programme (ICP) championed by Malaysia’s Technology Depository Agency (TDA), an agency under the Finance Ministry.

As the monitoring authority for the ICP, TDA functions to manage, administer, and monitor the implementation of the ICP to further develop the local industry and the nation’s technology capabilities leveraging on strategic government procurement.

Over the years, SMH Rail has had notable collaborations with Siemens AG and Hyundai-Rotem, both manufacturers of the MRT trainsets used in Malaysia.

According to Dr Sharoul Jambari, CEO of TDA, the success of SMH Rail as global player is the result of the government’s ICP that aims to develop local players’ capabilities through technology transfer, otherwise known as the offset programme.

Through the ICP, SMH Rail was given the opportunity to locally assemble and deliver 428 cars for the Kajang and Putrajaya MRT lines.

In a response to The Star, Datuk PK Nara, chairman and managing director of SMH Rail, said: “The Mumbai monorail project demonstrates the successful implementation of the ICP that provided leverage for SMH Rail to expand its capability for export by offering a level playing field in the rapidly growing global rail transport market.”

He said the government’s procurement policy had allowed Malaysia to establish a strong foundation to achieve competency in design, engineering and manufacturing of electric trains and locomotives in the region.

“We are committed towards building innovative solutions for the global rail industry, and are pleased to offer our expertise towards developing new cars for the Mumbai monorail alongside our partner Medha Servo Drives.

“With over 20 years of industry experience, we are focused on continuously delivering solutions for our global railway partners to ensure commuters in Mumbai can enjoy a more comfortable and faster travel experience,” he said.