Railways floats tender of Rs 30k cr for 800 electric train engines

09 May 2022 CW Team

On 4 May, the Indian Railways floated a tender for the manufacture and supply of 800 electric train engines under a contract worth around Rs 30,000 crores.

These electric train engines of 12,000-horsepower will be supplied over the next 10 years and will be manufactured at Varanasi's Banaras Locomotive Works.

The notice inviting the bid stated that these train engines are to be maintained at Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Tughlakabad (Delhi), and Sabarmati (Gujarat).

These electric train engines are to be utilised all over the Indian Railways and dedicated freight corridor (DFC) routes. Each train engine must be competent in hauling 6,000 tonnes of load at an average speed of 75 kilometres per hour (kmph).

The concept of trains for freight movement was proposed in 2007-08. Generally, the freight trains were underpowered, and this slowed down the movement of trains.

Railway Board former member traffic, VN Mathur, told the media that the new locomotives would be much more competent in handling heavy-haul loads on the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC).

In 2015, a similar tender for 12,000-HP electric locomotives was awarded to Alstom as a contract part worth about Rs 28,195 crores.

The contract was to supply 800 locomotives for freight service, competent in hauling 6,000 tonnes at a maximum speed of 120 kmph.

This contract has been the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) project in the Indian railway sector till now.

A retired railway official told the media that this was the first successful public-private partnership (PPP) of the Indian Railways. Alstom had bid for supplying at around Rs 38 crore per locomotive. At that time, the international market value was around Rs 60 crore per locomotive.

Image Source

Also read: Railways invites bids for 200 Vande Bharat Trains

Real Estate

02 Apr 2026

Indian real estate attracts USD 1.4 bn institutional investments in Q1 2026: Vestian

Institutional investments in India’s real estate sector touched USD 1.4 billion in Q1 2026, marking the highest first-quarter inflow since 2022, according to Vestian. While investments fell 62 per cent quarter-on-quarter due to an exceptionally high base in the previous quarter, they rose 74 per cent compared to the same period last year, reflecting sustained investor confidence despite rising geopolitical and macroeconomic challenges.Commercial real estate remained the key driver of investment activity during the quarter, accounting for 80 per cent of total inflows, sharply higher than 38 p..

VECV crosses 1 lakh annual vehicle sales milestone in FY26

VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV), a joint venture between Volvo Group and Eicher Motors, has surpassed the 1 lakh annual sales mark in FY 2025–26, recording its highest-ever commercial vehicle sales performance. The company said it sold more than 100,000 vehicles during the year, marking a major milestone aligned with the original vision of the Volvo–Eicher joint venture.The strong performance was supported by demand across categories. Light and Medium Duty (LMD) trucks contributed 47,789 units, accounting for 46.1 per cent of total sales. Heavy Duty (HD) trucks recorded 26,867 units (25.9 pe..

Rodic Digital & Advisory partners SatSure to deploy EO intelligence in public sector

Rodic Digital & Advisory (RDA), the strategic advisory and digital transformation arm of Rodic Consultants, has signed a strategic cooperation Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SatSure to jointly pursue opportunities in India’s public sector. The collaboration aims to integrate high-resolution Earth Observation (EO) data and geospatial AI into government workflows to strengthen monitoring, compliance, and operational decision-making across key sectors.The partnership combines SatSure’s Earth intelligence capabilities with RDA’s expertise in government digital transformation and ..