Indian Railways receives 100th electric locomotive from Alstom

French rolling stock manufacturer Alstom has manufactured and supplied the 100th fully electric high-powered double-section locomotive to Indian Railways.

Alstom will be delivering around 800 electric locomotives of 12,000 HP under the contract of around $4.22bn (€3.5bn), which it secured in 2015.

With the capacity to transport 6,000 tonnes at a speed of 120 km/hr, these locomotives will be deployed to provide freight services.

This project is said to be the largest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) project in the Indian Railway industry.

In May last year, the first Prima T8TM WAG-12B locomotive commenced commercial services.

These locomotives have been introduced on key freight routes, including Dedicated Freight Corridors.

In December 2020, these trains initiated their services on the first fully operational sections of the Dedicated Freight Corridors.

Alstom India managing director Alain Spohr 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, 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. Alstom is committed to delivering safe, reliable, and efficient solutions for IR’s revolutionary journey towards becoming the world’s first 100% green railways.”

The Prima T8TM WAG-12Be-Locos are manufactured at the integrated greenfield manufacturing centre at Madhepura in the Indian state of Bihar.

The project also covers the establishment of two maintenance depots in Saharanpur in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and Nagpur in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

Currently, the Saharanpur depot is functioning, while the Nagpur depot will commence operations in 2022.

Last week, Alstom signed a product test agreement with New York’s Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) for testing the implementation of one of its environmentally friendly traction technologies.

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