Covid-19 derails Pune Metro coach prototype making in Italy
The inauguration of the prototype manufacturing wassupposed to begin on April 8, but it was postponed as thefunctioning of the company's factory was halted till March 31following an advisory of the Italian government, a TitagarhWagons official said here on Tuesday.
Titagarh Firema had in August last year won a Rs 1,100crore international bid to supply Pune Metro as many as 102ultra-modern aluminium-bodied coaches.
The city-based wagon-maker took over Italy's FiremaTrasporti SpA in 2015.
"We had planned inauguration for commencement ofmaking of the Pune Metro coach prototype on April 8. But, nowit gets delayed due to the outbreak," Titagarh Wagons MD UmeshChowdhary told .
Italy on Monday reported 349 new deaths from the novelcoronavirus, taking its total since last month to 2,158, themost after China.
"The supply chain got disrupted and turnout ofemployees was low. We don't know how soon operation would getnormalised," he said.
This contract is for a total of 34 rakes, having threecoaches each, which will be supplied by the firm in a spanof 160 weeks.
According to terms, 90 per cent of the coaches wouldbe made in India but it will take off only after theprototypes arrive from Italy.
The company's Italian subsidiary has lowered itsoperational losses in the nine months of 2019-20 to Rs 8.6crore from Rs 17.3 crore in the year-ago period.
"We were expecting profit in 2021 backed by hugeorders book worth 300 million Euros," Chowdhary said. BSMNN NN