Initially, the group set out to establish a report to show Hillside Engineering's capability in terms of building rail stock for KiwiRail, after KiwiRail's decision to prohibit Hillside Engineering from submitting a tender for part of the $500 million contract to build 38 three-car electric multiple units (EMU) and 13 electric locomotives.
However, Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive and chairman of the working group John Christie said the group's vision had been broadened since then, into two strands.
The first strand was to continue the bid to win work on Auckland's trains but the aim now was to highlight all of New Zealand's engineering capabilities to build railway stock for KiwiRail, not just Hillside Engineering's capabilities.
The second strand is aimed at establishing an engineering capability report which looks at what Dunedin, as a city, can do on a wide variety of engineering projects, not just railway stock.
At a meeting at the Otago Chamber of Commerce yesterday, the group discussed ways of putting the information gleaned from the capability reports into an electronic format, so suppliers of products and services in the engineering sector can display their capabilities.
"So, if someone came along and said I want to build something in the oil industry, we could access our list of capabilities and show them what Dunedin can do," Mr Christie said.
"We will also use it to market Dunedin with interested parties to solicit more work for Dunedin companies, both nationally and internationally."
Mr Christie said identifying the capabilities of Dunedin's engineering firms had been highlighted as a necessity in the wake of the Auckland trains tender.
"The EMU build clearly identified that we didn't have anything to hand to KiwiRail and say, `here, this is what we can do'."
So far, the project had gained the support of many engineering firms in Dunedin and elsewhere in New Zealand.
About $25,000 had been contributed by engineering firms towards the completion of the capability project, he said.
