BANGALORE: Coaches for the Bangalore Metro, which will transport 40,000 passengers an hour when completed, will benefit from the best of technology.

Bharat Earth Movers Ltd. (BEML), which built world-class coaches for the Delhi Metro, plans to set up a national centre of excellence for metro coaches.

The centre is to come up in Bangalore with likely government funding of Rs. 125 crore and the company spending another Rs. 25 crore to acquire computer hardware and software.

The centre of excellence has been designed to carry out extensive research and development related to metro coaches and will be of international standards.

It will keep pace with global technology and work on all aspects from designs and prototypes to the end product. BEML has already supplied 180 of the 240 coaches ordered by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. With Mumbai, Kochi and Bangalore having started work on their metro rail systems and with some other cities clamouring for them, the anticipated demand for metro coaches across the country will be 1,300 coaches by 2010. Because of similar mass rapid transit systems coming up in several cities, the need for a centre of excellence was keenly felt. BEML may have been chosen because of its proven track record in this field. It has also built the `Skybus' coaches for Konkan Railway Corporation. The centre here will have high-end infrastructure in the shape of hangars, testing tracks for prototype coaches in different gauges and other equipment, including computers for simulation studies. BEML is about to enter into a joint venture for global outsourcing with Korean coach manufacturer Rotem. The joint venture will be headquartered in Bangalore. The Indian partner has been making coaches for the Korean company and its technicians were trained in Korea.

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