Alstom delivers 300th WAG12B electric locomotive to Indian Railways from Nagpur Depot

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 300^th 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.

Alstom has been associated with India’s progress for over 100 years. As the leading multinational sustainable mobility provider in India, Alstom offers 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.

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