With the e-locos being manufactured within the country, India has become the sixth in the world to join the club of countries producing high horsepower locomotives indigenously.
Alstom, a rolling stock major, has successfully delivered 300 electric locomotives to the Indian Railways, achieving a significant milestone.
This is expected to increase the national transporter’s capabilities to haul heavy freight trains at high speed, to meet its ambitious loading targets of 3,000 million tonnes (MT) by 2030.
As part of its contract worth €3.5 billion, Alstom is supplying 800 high-powered double-section locomotives of 12,000 HP (9 MW) for freight service.
Designated by Indian Railways as WAG-12B, these locos are capable of hauling 6,000 tonne rakes at a top speed of 120 kmph.
Amid the presence of senior railway officials including Central Railway’s general manager Naresh Lalwani, the 300th electric-loco was flagged off from Alstom’s state-of-the-art locomotive maintenance depot in Nagpur, which was inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi in December last year.
Besides, Nagpur DRM Tushar Kant Pandey and managing director of Alstom rolling stock, Anil Kumar Saini and Madhepura Electric Locomotive managing director Vivek Garg were also present at the occasion.
Indian Railways is undergoing a massive transformation in its freight operations and Alstom’s contribution in powering this revolution is commendable, Lalwani said while addressing the gathering at the Nagpur Depot.
He further said, “The joint venture formed between Indian Railways and Alstom, to build India’s most powerful electric locomotives for freight service is a stellar example of a successful public-private-partnership model, it will play a key role in accelerating the growth of the freight sector.“
“The world-class facility built here, and the quality of products and services delivered by Alstom, are well aligned with the government’s Make-in-India, Skill India, and green mobility initiatives. This combined with the workplace culture nurtured by Alstom, will definitely set new benchmarks for our industry,“ he added.
Commenting on the milestone, Olivier Loison, managing director of Alstom India said, “The government of India is prioritizing reducing logistics costs in its efforts to boost the economy towards the USD 5 trillion economy target. Indian Railways will play an important role in achieving this goal, and for that it needs to strengthen its haulage capacity.
“The Alstom WAG12B electric locomotive has proven to be a capability multiplier, with its ability to haul greater loads at faster speeds. The 300th loco delivery is a proud milestone for us, and as we continue to deliver more locomotives, this partnership will continue to boost the nation’s logistic capabilities.”
As part of the contract, Alstom’s Nagpur Depot will be maintaining 250 WAG12B electric locomotives starting from series 60251.
This depot is equipped with the latest technologies and features to anticipate breakdowns thereby enabling proactive maintenance of India’s most advanced freight locomotives at significantly lower costs.
The depot has 12 tracks for maintenance with hi-tech equipment. The depot is equipped with a Centred Fleet monitoring (CFM) system to remotely monitor the fleet via health hub and train tracer system.
The prompt response team is deployed for 24 x 7 loco attention.
Green features like rainwater harvesting, zero discharge using effluent treatment plant and sewerage treatment plant, 100 per cent LED lights, daylight panels, occupancy sensors, greenery and provision for 1MW rooftop solar plant are part of the facility.
This is the second such facility set up by Alstom, after the depot at Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, which houses the first 250 locomotives delivered to Indian Railways.
The WAG-12B locos are being built at one of India’s largest integrated greenfield manufacturing facilities at Madhepura (Bihar), under a joint venture between Alstom and Indian Railways.
Equipped with Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT) based propulsion technology, these e-locos will have considerable savings in energy consumption with the use of regenerative braking.
The technology is also helpful towards making the acceleration process more efficient by reducing the heat generation and traction noise.
Additionally, it will not only bring down operational costs, but also reduce the congestion faced by Indian Railways.
This is the largest FDI project in the Indian Railway sector. The facility has an installed production capacity of 120 locomotives per annum and Alstom has progressively achieved near 90 per cent indigenization.
With these powerful e-locos being manufactured within the country, India has become the sixth in the world to join the club of countries producing high horsepower locomotives indigenously.