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Indian Railways get state-of-the-art Alstom 12,000 BHP locomotives
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SME Times News Bureau | 19 May, 2020
The world's most powerful locomotive manufactured by French giant Alstom
along with the Madhepura Electric Locomotives Pvt Ltd, capable of
running at maximum 12,000 HP, joined operations of the Indian Railways
on Monday, officials said.
"Bolstering Prime Minister Narendra
Modiji's vision of Make in India, first WAG12B (12000 HP) loco departed
from Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay station in Uttar Pradesh today. Powerful
and capable of high speed, the locomotive is a significant addition to
the Indian Railways," tweeted Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal.
According
to Railway officials, WAG12B started its services from Pandit Deen
Dayal Upadhyay railway station (Mughalsarai Junction) in Uttar Pradesh
on Monday.
The train departed from Deen Dayal Upadhyay station at
2.08 p.m. in long haul formation for Dhanbad division of East Central
Railway, consisting of 118 wagons which travelled from Pandit Deen Dayal
Upadhyaya Junction to Barwadih via Dehri-on-Sone, Garhwa Road stations.
The locomotive is capable of taking heavy consingment of freight and will be used on the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC).
"Alstom
is pleased to start delivery of the electric locomotives to Indian
Railways. Commencement of induction into the IR fleet, testifies our
commitment towards the country. This is a revolutionary product which
will be faster, safer and eco-friendly. Also, it is scripting a new
chapter for India's sustainable mobility journey and we are happy to be
partnering in this," said Alain Spohr, Managing Director, Alstom India
and South Asia.
A railway ministry spokesperson said that it was a
proud moment for Indian Railways, as it became the sixth country in the
world to join the elite club of producing high horse power locomotives
indigenously.
"It is the first time that a high horse power
locomotive has been operationalised on broad gauge track in the world.
The locomotive has been produced under Make in India programme. The
Madhepura factory is the largest integrated greenfield facility built to
the highest standards of quality and safety with production capacity of
120 locomotives and spread across a massive 250 acres."
Railway
officials said that the locomotive is capable of running on railway
tracks with conventional over head wire (OHE) lines as well as on DFC
with high rise OHE lines.
The official further said that the locomotive has air-conditioned driver cabs on either side.
"The
locomotive is equipped with regenerative braking system which provides
substantial energy savings during operations. These high horse power
locomotives will help to decongest the saturated tracks by improving
average speed of freight trains," the spokesperson said.
Touted
as the largest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects of the Railways,
the Ministry of Railways and Alstom came together in 2015.
An
agreement worth 3.5 billion euros was signed to manufacture 800 electric
locomotives for freight services and its associated maintenance.
These
locomotives are state-of-the-art IGBT-based, 3 phase drive, 9000 KW
(12000 horse power) electric locomotives. The locomotive is capable of
maximum tractive effort of 706 kN, which is capable of starting and
running a 6000 T train in the gradient of 1 in 150. The locomotive with
twin Bo-Bo design having 22.5 T (tonnes) axle load is upgradable to 25
tonnes with design speed of 120 kmph.
The locomotive will be used
on the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) for the faster movement of
goods, especially coal and iron ore.
The railway official said that the project started in 2018 and Modi inaugurated the project on April 10, 2018.
The
prototype locomotive was delivered in March 2018. Based on the test
results having design issues, the complete locomotive including bogies
was redesigned. The new design of locomotive has been inspected by
Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) at Madhepura factory
and cleared for dispatch from factory in November 2019, the official
said.
He said RDSO has conducted oscillation trials at various
speeds upto 132 kmph and the locomotive has passed oscillation trials
successfully.
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