Italian manufacturing is boarding India’s underground networks and trains. Saira Asia, a division of Saira Europe, a company specialising in the train, tram and metro rail interiors sector, and part of the Tosoni industrial group in Villafranca di Verona, has received an order for the production and supply of interiors for 85 trains, with a total of 340 carriages, for the new New Delhi underground network.

The Saira company started in 1928. In 1997 it was acquired by the Tosoni group, which began a comprehensive reorganisation process. Today the company operates on a 50,000 m² site that includes a modern production plant covering a floor area of over 30,000 m². With its output from the beginning up to the present, Saira has played a role in writing the history of the Italian railway system.

However, it doesn’t stop there; history is now repeating itself beyond the confines of Italy, on the railway network of India, which is the second largest in the world in terms of infrastructure, with approximately 63,000 km of track. The Indian government has recently launched a public investment plan for its transport sector, aimed in particular at the creation of latest-generation underground networks with western standards of quality.

An important part of this “transport revolution” will be played by Saira Asia, which has a base in Baroda/Vadodare, in the state of Gujarat. The company today is an Indian reality that is 100% controlled by Italian entrepreneurs, with its focus on the design, production, assembly and supply of components and furnishings for underground networks and passenger carriages. Saira Asia, the result of an important investment by the Tosoni group, both culturally as well as financially, was created with particular attention paid to its management organisation. The aim was to achieve a perfect balance between the expertise of the Italian ownership, the enthusiasm and qualification of young Italian managers and the knowledge of local practices provided by the Indian management.

Thanks to this successful approach, Saira has not just developed the capacity to meet the many needs of the market over the years, with its design and supply of complete interior systems for railways and underground networks. It has also built the capacity to undertake and complete large foreign contracts in an international context, thanks to its personnel and structure, as the current project in New Delhi demonstrates. In addition to this, the company has also made fittings for the underground networks in Barcelona, Warsaw and Shanghai.

The result is a dynamic company, destined in the near future to become the group’s global sourcing hub, placing its own design and production capacities at the service of the subsidiary and affiliated companies. The Tosoni group currently has two operational divisions present in international markets: one in the field of construction (Officine Tosoni Lino and Cordioli&C.) and the other in the area of transport (Saira Europe and Far Systems). The group has over 700 employees and produces an annual turnover of almost 250 million Euros.