Indian Railways will start operating a new 12,000 horsepower electric locomotive, being produced in collaboration with Alstom, in March, when French President Emmanuel Macron visits India. The French President will be participating in the International Solar Alliance meeting in March.
The assembly of the first 12,000 hp locomotive at Bihar’s Madhepura plant is currently complete and the tests are ongoing. The new WAG 12 electric locomotive, which can run at speeds of up to 120 km/h will be used to haul freight trains. It can haul about 9,000 tonnes of goods.
“The WAG 12 will enable Indian Railways to have a fleet of locomotives equipped with state of the art propulsion technology. Induction of 12,000 HP locomotives will be a transformational step as it will allow Indian Railways to run heavy haul and long haul trains over the Dedicated Freight Corridor,” Alstom Vice President Sales and Business Development (Asia Pacific) Bharat Salhotra said. “It will help in speeding up movement of goods trains by increasing the current average speed of the freight trains from 60 kmph to 100 kmph,” he explained.
Indian Railways currently uses 6,000 hp locomotives for freight services. The new locomotive will allow for faster, safer and more reliable freight movement across India, thereby reducing congestion for passenger train services and other freight services, and also reducing the logistics cost of rail transportation.
Indian Railways will manufacture 800 such electric locomotives over the next 11 years in a joint venture with the Alstom at the Madhepura locomotive factory.
Share on:
