HÜBNER Group has today announced that its “Namma Factory” in Bengaluru has achieved a significant milestone of the production and delivery of 2,000 gangways since the factory was commissioned at the beginning of 2023. In addition, HUBNER India has started production of gangway systems for metro projects to serve the Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo and the Egyptian capital Cairo, from the plant.
The Namma Factory is developing into a major success story for the HÜBNER Group with its achievements within such a short time frame. The Indian subsidiary HUBNER Interface Systems India Pvt. Ltd. (HIN) manufactures products and components in a particularly resource-efficient manner thanks to high-performance sustainability technologies.
Production levels raised with resource-saving manufacturing methods
“Our plan in India to meet the requirements of our local customers quickly and flexibly with a modern plant and a growing, high-performance team is working out just as we hoped,” says Kai Mentel, Managing Director of the HÜBNERGroup. “With the Namma Factory facility we are proving that it is possible to both raise our production capacities for India and Asia as a whole while at the same time manufacturing with especially sustainable and resource-conserving methods.”
With the production and delivery of 2,000 gangways, the Namma Factory team has also achieved other important milestones: Two major orders for a total of 540 gangway systems for the Vande Bharat Express (Train 18) have now been completed. In addition, HUBNER India has started production of gangway systems for metro projects to serve the Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo and the Egyptian capital Cairo.
Handling major projects with increased production capacities
With a positive order situation, HUBNER India has increased its staff from 125 to nearly 200 employees. Among the major projects being handled by the growing team is an order from the Indian train manufacturer BEML for 800 gangway systems to serve the Mumbai Metro. This is one of the largest orders in the history of the HÜBNER Group.
With the commissioning of the new factory, the HÜBNER Group has significantly increased its production capacities for mobility markets in the Asia-Pacific region. The HÜBNER Group has been the global market leader for gangway systems for many years. It is now using the added production capacities in India to undertake major projects for leading mobility providers such as BEML, as well as Alstom and Indian Railways.
Focus on sustainability: Half a million kilowatt hours of solar power
When designing the new Namma Factory, the HÜBNER Group placed a special focus on sustainability. The bulk of the energy required to run the factory is generated by a photovoltaic system, which produced 587,055 kilowatt hours (KWh) of electricity in its first year of operation alone. Around 72 percent of this was fed into the local power grid. “To generate the same amount of electricity, 32 tons of coal would have had to be burned for the Namma Factory’s first year of operation,” explains Uwe Sperber, Location Head of HUBNER India. “This has saved us the equivalent of 60 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.”
The plant’s in-house wastewater treatment plant is also paying for itself – with a daily capacity of 15 cubic meters for wastewater treatment and a capacity of 60 cubic meters for storing and using rainwater. Through the use of this treated water for landscaping work and sanitary facilities, approximately 350 cubic meters of water have already been recycled in the first year. “We are proud of these successes in the operation of the Namma Factory and see them as an incentive to manage our processes with even greater resource efficiency in the future,” says Uwe Sperber.
In India for India: Developing local engineering expertise
It has been possible to develop local engineering expertise in the Namma Factory in connection with the Metro Cairo project for HÜBNER’s customer Alstom. The train manufacturer has been mandated to make Egypt’s largest metro line more energy efficient and to design it for larger numbers of passengers – up to 2,580 people in a single train. For the development of the necessary gangway systems, the HÜBNER Group is pooling its expertise at its locations in Kassel, Germany, and Bengaluru. The aim is to make it possible for the entire product development process for future projects to take place in India by the end of 2025.
“We have launched a real lighthouse project in the growing market of India with our Namma Factory,” points out Managing Director Kai Mentel. “This also sends a strong signal to our customers. The HÜBNER Group is a high- performance partner that is acting on a global scale and is continually improving in the area of sustainability.”
