GUJARAT (Metro Rail News): The engineering firm Siemens won a contract to manufacture 1,200 electric locomotives with 9000 HP (horsepower) at Dahod in Gujarat for more than Rs 20,000 crore.
In April, Indian Railways floated a tender for manufacturing and maintaining 9,000 HP electric locomotives in Dahod. Alstom and Siemens were the participants.
“Siemens Limited has emerged as the lowest bidder (L1) for the 9000 HP electric locomotives project in Dahod, Gujarat, India,” a BSE filing said.
In April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation for the project to build 9,000 HP electric locomotives at the Dahod Railway production site.
The project was expected to cost about Rs 20,000 crore.
The Dahod workshop, founded in 1926 for routine steam locomotive maintenance, is being transformed into an electric locomotive manufacturing unit. As a result, over 10,000 individuals are anticipated to receive direct and indirect jobs.
The Dahod facility will produce 1,200 locomotives over 11 years, from 2023–2024 to 2033–2034. The winning bidder will provide five locomotives in the first year and 35 in the second. The third and fourth years will see annual deliveries of up to 80 locomotives.
In the fifth and sixth years, manufacturing will be expanded to 100 locomotives annually. After that, until 2033–2034, 160 locomotives will be produced annually.
A single 9000 HP, six-axle Co-Co locomotive will be used on all Indian Railways routes to haul loads weighing 4,500 tonnes at an average speed of 75 kmph.
The designated government depots for maintenance would be located in Kharagpur (West Bengal), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), and Pune (Maharashtra), each having a holding capacity of 300.
Indian Railway anticipates receiving its first locomotive from the Dahod site in the first quarter of 2024. The locomotive will be produced using green energy and will bear a tag that says “green manufacturing.” Dahod is a railway station on the Delhi-Mumbai route.
