French rail engineer Alstom has inaugurated a joint venture in Anhui Province, near Shanghai, where it will build a factory and offer project management and maintenance services.
Hefei Alstom Rail Transport Equipment, as the venture is titled, will design and make traction systems and components for metro trains, and will be built in three phases over eight to 10 years.
Construction is currently under way on Hefei’s Line 8 metro line, the city’s first to be fully automated. Alstom is providing the traction systems for the trains that will operate on the 23km, 12-station line.
There are also other metro and rail lines under construction in in the city, which has a population of 8 million.
Ming Geng, Alstom China’s managing director, said: ”As the first local manufacturing base for traction systems in Hefei, the factory will play an important role in Hefei’s rail transit industry chain. And it will support Hefei’s rail transit industry to enter the national and overseas markets.”
Alstom has been working in China for 60 years and has 11 joint ventures employing almost 10,000 staff.
