Global companies to develop Railways' Gujarat loco facility

Global players such as Alstom, Siemens, Hitachi, Stadler Rail, Wabtec, and Arco evinced interest to develop a new locomotive facility for the Indian Railways at an estimated cost of Rs 20,000 crore in Dahod, Gujarat.

Several overseas and local companies had participated in the pre-bid consultations for the 1,200 electric locomotives of 9,000 horsepower (HP) manufacture and supply.

Domestic companies comprise Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Medha Group, and CG Power and Industrial Solutions.

The trains will be supplied over a period of 11 years from 2023-24 to 2033-34 at the current rolling stock workshop in Dahod. The workshop had been established in 1926 for the periodic overhaul of steam locomotives. It will be upgraded to an electric locomotive manufacturing unit having infrastructural improvements.

The proposed facility shall manufacture the 1,200 HP electric locomotives - broad gauge for Indian Railways and standard gauge for exports. The train engines will be used across the network of Indian Railways for hauling 4,500 tonne load, having an average speed of 75 km per hour by a single locomotive.

The technology partner will be selected post-tender would have to upgrade the existing facilities while developing existing ones at the manufacturing site along with the nominated government maintenance depots.

As per the tender document, the four nominated government depots for maintenance of the locomotives would have a holding capacity of 300 each. The depots are located at Kharagpur, Visakhapatnam, Raipur, and Pune.

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