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GE Equipment Services not only has entered India’s railway market, the company will play a role in improving the country’s freight-rail operations.

Today, GE announced it formed a strategic partnership with Indian rail-car manufacturer Titagarh Wagons Ltd. under which GE Equipment Services will provide financing, operating and monitoring services.

As part of the venture, GE Equipment Services and GE Commercial Finance acquired 15 percent of Titagarh Wagons. GE Equipment Services will obtain preferred access to Titagarh-manufactured cars, which will be leased to the Indian Railways and private Indian shippers, and become a preferred vendor financing provider for the car builder.

Titagarh Wagons plans to use the financing to accelerate manufacturing; the car-building process currently takes about 18 months.

GE and Titagarh Wagons also will explore ways to improve the nation’s rail transport, such as by incorporating GE’s soon-to-be-introduced VeriWise™ RAIL asset management technology in new cars. VeriWise RAIL is designed to locate cars, and monitor car and freight condition to enhance visibility and improve security.

“Our domain expertise in rail and other forms of transport allows us to bring a wide range of best practices from our various global platforms to India, including new financing structures, new wagon designs, new forms of fleet management and other new services,” said Dhananjay Nalawade, GE Equipment Services President for India, in a prepared statement.