New Delhi, Feb 13 (IANS) Canadian transportation major Bombardier has set up an engineering facility at Hyderabad that is designing high-end railway solutions for the global market - as also for India.

"All these products are identified as world top references that can support India in joining the globe's finest in rail transportation," Rajeev Jyoti, managing director of Bombardier Transportation India, told reporters here Tuesday.

Bombardier will have a major presence at the two-day International Railway Conference that opens here Wednesday as part of the ongoing 17th India Engineering Trade Fair (IETF).

The company, better known for its range of regional jets, has also offered Indian Railways technology to jointly manufacture next generation electric locomotives for hauling passenger and freight trains, to add to the WAP5 and WAG9 locomotives being built in the country with the Canadian technology.

This apart, the company has shown interest, jointly with Reliance, in mass transportation projects for Hyderabad and Chandigarh, and is also preparing to bid for selling rolling stock, as also signalling and communication equipment for the proposed Delhi Metro link between the New Delhi railway station and the international airport, Jyoti said.

"The Hyderabad centre is involved in the development of vehicle engineering design for top products like the Movia for the London Underground, the Electrostar for South Africa and high speed electric multiple units for China," the official pointed out.

"In the signalling sector, a highly advanced automatic communication-based train control system for the Madrid Metro is being developed with the cooperation of the Hyderabad centre (that is manned by 300 engineers)," Jyoti added.

Noting that Bombardier "is well positioned to help Indian Railways make best use of its equipment by improving reliability and extending life cycles", the official added: "We also provide services, including the repair and refurbishing of railcars, fleet maintenance services, spare part management and the upgrading of third-party workshops."

Toward this end, the company is in talks with Indian Railways for a public-private partnership to manufacture the TRAXX range of locomotives for passenger and freight trains.

"Our experience with the WAP5 and WAG9 series has been extremely productive. Not only have we transferred technology to create capacities in India, but through localisation, we have been able to bring the cost of a locomotive down by 70 percent between 1993 and 2004," Jyoti pointed out.