India: The Czech wagon manufacturer has announced that it completed the construction of the facility in Kolkata. The site, established as a joint venture with the local freight car builder Texmaco Rail, is going to launch the first gondola car by next February.
The plant with an area of 8,300 m2 and four production lines is reported to reach an annual capacity of 2,500 cars. Last year, Petr Vlček, Nymwag CEO, informed Railmarket that the Kolkata facility would be able to build gondola cars, flatcars, tank cars, and hopper wagons.
Founded in 2019, Nymwag is a rapidly growing manufacturer which has so far produced 5,000 freight cars. It focuses mainly on the manufacturing of tank cars and has its main facility in Nymburk, Czechia. In 2024, it was announced that Nymwag planned to build a plant with an annual capacity of 2,000 wagons in Uzbekistan. However, there is no further information on the course of the project.
Nymwag has become the first foreign wagon builder to develop rolling stock manufacture in India. Slovak Tatravagonka is also present in the market, but its activities are limited to rail wheelset production in partnership with local Jupiter Wagons. Meanwhile, Russia’s United Wagon Company has also resumed its efforts to enter the Indian market.
India has one of the most dynamic freight car markets in the world. In the last financial year (from April 2024 to March 2025), 42,000 wagons were produced, which was 11% more than in the previous year and 2.6 times higher than the average production capacity over the last decade. In late 2020, the Indian government estimated that the country would require more than 540,000 freight cars by 2031 (or +85% to the fleet in 2020), while by 2051, India would need 1.1 mln wagons (+262%). Traditionally, foreign players entering the Indian market have to be ready for fierce competition and low costs and must adhere to the Make in India national programme, which calls for localisation of production in cooperation with domestic companies.
