France's Alstom to deliver 14 more high-power locomotives to Indian Railways

French mobility major Alstom will deliver 14 high-power locomotives to the Indian Railways from its Madhepura plant by end of this month in addition to the 76 locomotives already delivered to the Indian government. The company is also exploring options to export the locomotives from India to other markets.  

Madhepura Electric Locomotive Private Ltd is a joint venture between the Indian Railways and Alstom, and will supply 800 heavy haul locomotives of 12,000 horsepower capacity to the Indian Railways as per the contract signed in 2015.  

Speaking exclusively to BusinessToday.In, Ling Fang, president, Alstom Asia Pacific said, "We have already delivered 76 locomotives to the Indian Railways and have successfully ramped up the capacity of the Madhepura locomotive factory. We will deliver 14 more locomotives to the Indian Railways by the end of this month". "Since the capacity ramp up of the facility has been completed, the Madhepura facility will be able to deliver 20 locomotives in month, which is almost double the earlier capacity," Fang added 

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Being asked whether the company would like to export the high-power locomotives manufactured in India, Ling confirmed that the company was looking forward to the opportunity. She, however, did not divulge more details on the export plans related to the Madhepura locomotives.    

The Madhepura locomotive plant in Bihar set up by the JV is a greenfield unit spread across 250 acres. The unit will manufacture the first 800 locomotives for captive use of the Indian Railways.

The 12,000 HP locomotives are capable of hauling 6,000 tonnes at a top speed of 120 kmph and will be utilised on the dedicated freight corridor being developed by the Indian Railways.  

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The locomotives delivered earlier have already been pressed into service by the Railways on the recently inaugurated sections of the dedicated freight corridor - the 351 Km Khurja-Bhaupur section of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), and 306 Km Rewai-Madar section of the Western DFC.  

As per the contract, the JV will also conduct maintenance of the locomotives for a period of thirteen years.

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