Indian company Texmaco, along with its Australian ally United Group (UGL), is set to form a joint venture with three Japanese firms Kawasaki, Toshiba and Itochu to build metro rail coaches for India.

The existing 50:50 partnership between Texmaco and UGL will hold a minority stake in the joint venture with the Japanese firms.

Work will take place in a proposed Rs300 crore (approximately $62m) manufacturing unit in Kolkata, India.

A greenfield unit has also been proposed.

Texmaco hopes the partnership will help tap the growing Indian market with metro projects coming up in cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad.