Shri Naresh
Lalwani, General Manager, Central Railway joined the site celebrations for the
flag-off
by Priya Jadhav
Alstom, the global leader in smart and sustainable mobility, has successfully delivered 300 electric
locomotives to the Indian Railways. This marks a significant milestone in
increasing the Indian Railways’ capabilities to haul heavy freight trains at
high speed, to meet its ambitious freight targets. 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 km/hr.
Marking the milestone
delivery, the 300th e-loco was flagged off from Alstom’s state of
the art locomotive maintenance depot in Nagpur, which was inaugurated by the Hon’ble
PM Shri Narendra Modi in December of last year. This milestone was celebrated in
the presence of Shri Naresh Lalwani, General Manager, Central Railway, and
senior officials from Alstom, along with other key dignitaries from Indian
Railways.
Addressing the
audience, Shri Naresh Lalwani, General Manager, Central Railway, said, “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 succesful 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”.
Commenting on the milestone,
Olivier Loison, Managing Director - 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 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 24 x 7 loco attention. Green features like rainwater harvesting,
zero discharge using effluent treatment plant and sewerage treatment plant,
100% LED lights, daylight panels, occupancy sensors, greenery and provisioned
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.
Nagpur Depot completes
7 months+ of operations and records 1.6+ Million service defect free kilometres
for the Nagpur Fleet. The site is a success story for the Public Private
Partnership (PPP) model, where supervisors are from Alstom and technicians from
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% indigenization.
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 include - coal, cement, food
grains, fertilisers, petrochemical products, minerals, and posts/ parcels, across 17 States & 2 Union Territories. 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.
About Alstom :Leading societies to a low carbon future, Alstom develops and markets mobility solutions that provide sustainable foundations for the future of transportation. From high-speed trains, metros, monorails, trams, to turnkey systems, services, infrastructure, signalling and digital mobility, Alstom offers its diverse customers the broadest portfolio in the industry. 150,000 vehicles in commercial service worldwide attest to the company’s proven expertise in project management, innovation, design and technology. In 2022, the company was included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices, World and Europe, for the 12th consecutive time. Headquartered in France and present in 70 countries, Alstom employs more than 74,000 people. The Group posted revenues of €15.5 billion for the fiscal year ending on 31 March 2022
Log ontohttp://www.alstom.comfor more information.
About Alstom in India: Alstom is the only multinational sustainable mobility provider in India, to have a comprehensive portfolio of offerings to meet customer specific needs, from cost-efficient mass-market platforms to high-end technological innovations. Synonymous with the country’s ‘Rail Revolution’, Alstom continues to be a strategic partner in supporting India’s freight revolution and passenger movement. With 6 industrial sites and 4 major engineering centres, the company not only caters to domestic project needs, but also delivers for many international projects. Supporting the government’s modernization initiatives, Alstom has been at the forefront of introducing several breakthrough technologies in India with world class rolling stock, rail equipment & infrastructure, signalling and services. Fully aligned with the country’s vision of Make-in-India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Alstom remains deeply committed to strengthening its local sourcing and supply chain ecosystem.
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