Alstom Delivers 100th Locomotive to the Indian Railways – Make in India

Alstom has manufactured and delivered the 100th electric locomotive to Indian Railways despite challenges posed by covid-19, the company said. The delivery is part of the contract worth €3.5 billion (Rs 25,000 crore), signed between the ministry of railways and Alstom in 2015 which led to the creation of a joint venture for the project and the largest foreign direct investment project of the Railways. The company will be supplying 800 fully electric high-powered double-section locomotives of 12,000 HP (9 MW) for freight service, capable of hauling 6,000 tonne at a speed of 120 km/hr.

Deployed for operations on major freight routes, including Dedicated Freight Corridors, the Prima T8TM WAG-12B e-locos have already clocked over close to 5 million kilometres hauling a wide range of commodities. These locomotives also made the inaugural run on the first fully operational sections of the DFC in December 2020. Some of the key commodities moved by these e-locos include — coal, cement, food grains, fertilisers, petrochemical products, minerals, and posts/parcels, across 17 states and two Union Territories.

Alain Spohr, Managing Director – Alstom India said, “I’m pleased to mention that despite challenges posed by COVID-19, we have been able to successfully manufacture and deliver 100 e-Locos to the Indian Railways in less than a year.”

Due to the intricacy of the project, he said it is really an honour to work on a first-of-its-kind ‘Make in India’ project that resulted in a technology breakthrough for the nation. “Our successful collaboration with Indian Railways is paving the way for bringing advanced innovation and technology to the country.”

The Prima T8TM WAG-12B e-locos are built at an integrated green field manufacturing facility at Madhepura (Bihar). The site has installed production capacity of 120 locomotives per annum and Alstom has progressively achieved over 85% indigenisation.

Source: Manufacturing Today