On Wednesday (20 December), Alstom launched India's first Digital Experience Centre built by a rail OEM (original equipment manufacturer).
The Digital Experience is located in Bangalore and occupies five thousand square feet. It will be the hub for carrying out projects for the urban, mainline, freight and mining markets, with integrated cybersecurity, Security & Telecom and SCADA features. The centre will support more than seven million hours of engineering work for Indian and global projects.
The addition of this centre means that Alstom has sixty thousand square feet of signalling lab infrastructure in India, which it believes will aid its vision of making India a global hub for technology and innovation.
Alstom has also manufactured and supplied rolling stock to India, including Movia trainsets for Bhopal-Indore metro project and Prima T8 double-section locomotives to Indian Railways.
The Global Innovation Index (GII) conducted a study which showed that the market for railway signalling systems is likely to grow significantly, with a forecast compound annual growth rate of 9.5% from 2022 to 2030. Alstom's current signalling lab infrastructure in India addresses more than forty percent of its worldwide research and development (R&D) needs.
The new centre will enable learning, adaptation, experimentation, simulation and validation of Alstom's signalling hardware and software innovations. It will carry out full simulations of world-class signalling technologies, including the system developed for the NaMo Bharat, the electric multiple unit (EMU) that is first semi-high speed regional train in India.
The centre will use IoT (Internet of Things), IoB (Internet of Behaviours) for Security and Telecom-related domains, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) applications (OpenAI based), and blockchain for innovation projects in railway applications. These will boost Alstom's business capabilities and efficiency, and will inspire what the organisation calls “a culture of innovation”.
The extensive infrastructure at the centre will speed up the process of making R&D programs suitable to the location, will drive innovation in India, and supports the government's ‘Make in India' policy.
Other key highlights include:
- centralised demonstration of Operation Control Centre showing all train movements in a project
- remote system monitoring and troubleshooting
- display of safety-critical hardware, trackside equipment, innovation booths, and interactive information on all signalling gears
- end-to-end tests for projects and R&D software delivered from India
- built leveraging emerging technologies such as AI, Big Data, intelligent maintenance, LTE, and cybersecurity
- mobile app enabled technology.
Olivier Loison, Managing Director, Alstom India said, “The rail network in India, both urban and mainline is becoming highly modernised and complex, this makes its more important than ever to develop advanced Signalling solutions to drive safety, efficiency, and improved passenger experience. In addition to our excellent manufacturing and engineering capabilities, we are proud to be now leading the charter of rail technology innovation with the launch of this centre in India. As the leaders in sustainable mobility, we look forward to developing modern signalling solutions by harnessing the country's vast talent pool, moving forward the innovation goalpost in our industry.''
