India’s first high-speed electric locomotive to be launched; here’s all you need to know

The Indian Railways has entered into an agreement with France’s Alstome for 800 high-speed locomotives. The first five electric engines will be imported while the remaining 795 will be manufactured in the country over a period of 11 years.

Cost

The Rs 20,000-crore project includes the Rs 1,300 crore cost for setting up the factory at Madhepura and two loco maintenance depots at Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Nagpur (Maharashtra), beside building 800 locos. The average cost of each locomotive is estimated to be Rs 25 crore.

Speed

The heavy-haulage locoswill have a maximum speed of 110 km per hour. India’s most powerful electric engine till now was of 6,000 horsepower(HP). With this induction, India will join an elite list of countries, including Russia, China, Germany and Sweden, that have 12,000 HP and above capacity electric locomotives.

Production

In the current fiscal year, five locomotives will be rolled out. About 35 locos will be manufactured at the Madhepura facility in the next fiscal (2019-20) and 60 in 2020-21. After that every year 100 locos will pe produced. The new locomotives are aimed at bringing down operating costs for the Railways and cutting down the greenhouse gas emissions.

Usage

The high horsepower locos will be pressed into service as freight trains. It will be used to transport coal and iron ore. This will help decongest saturated routes by improving the speed and carrying capacity of freight trains.