Alstom delivers 300 electric locos to Indian Railways; freight trains to run faster

NEW DELHI: French multinational rolling stock manufacturer Alstom on Wednesday said it delivered 300 electric locomotives to the Indian Railways, increasing the national transporter's capability to haul its heavy freight trains at higher speed.

As part of its contract worth 3.5 billion euros, Alstom is supplying 800 high-powered double-section locomotives of 12,000 HP (9MW) 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 kilometre per hour.

Marking the milestone delivery, the 300th e-loco was flagged off from Alstom's locomotive maintenance depot in Nagpur, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December of last year.

"Indian Railways is undergoing a massive transformation in its freight operations and Alstom's contribution in powering this revolution is commendable. 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," said Naresh Lalwani, General Manager, Central Railway.

Olivier Loison, Managing Director, Alstom India, said that 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," he said.

As part of the contract, Alstom's Nagpur depot will be maintaining 250 WAG12B e-loco 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 Centred Fleet monitoring (CFM) system to remotely monitor the fleet via Health hub and Train Tracer system.

The Prompt Response Team (PRT) is deployed for 24x7 loco attention.

It also has 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 provisions for 1 MW rooftop solar plant.

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.

This is the largest foreign direct investment 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 indigenisation.

With these powerful e-locos being manufactured within the country, India has become the 6th in the world to join the club of countries producing high horsepower locomotives indigenously.

The WAG-12B locomotives made its inaugural run on the first fully operational sections of the dedicated freight corridors two years ago.

Some of the key commodities moved by these e-locos included coal, cement, food grains, fertilisers, petrochemical products, minerals, and posts/ parcels, across 17 states and two Union Territories.