Madhepura Electric Locomotive Pvt. Ltd. (MELPL) will manufacture 800 State of the Art 12000 HP Electric Freight Locomotives in 11 years, Railways said in a statement.
The Indian Railways operationalised its most powerful 'Made in India locomotive - a 12000 HP engine - on Monday, becoming only the sixth country in the world to join the elite club of producing high horsepower locomotive indigenously, the Ministry of Railways said.
The first 12000 HP made in India Locomotive, manufactured by Madhepura Electric Loco Factory situated in Bihar, was put into operation by Indian Railways from Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Jn Station Monday, it said.
The loco is named WAG12 with Number 60027. The train departed from Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Station at 14:08 hrs in long haul formation for Dhanbad Division of East Central Railway, consisting of 118 wagons which travelled to Barwadih via Dehri-on-Sone, Garhwa Road, it added.
It is the first time, high horsepower locomotive has been operationalised on broad gauge track in the world, the Railways claimed.
The locomotive has been produced under 'Make in India' programme. The Madhepura factory is the largest integrated Green Field facility built to the highest standards of quality and safety with a production capacity of 120 locomotives and spread across a massive 250 acres, it added.
According to the specifications provided by the Railways, these locomotives are state of art IGBT based, 3 phase drive, 9000 KW (12000 horsepower) electric locomotive. It is capable of the maximum tractive effort of 706 kN, which is capable of starting and running a 6000 T train in the gradient of 1 in 150. The locomotive with twin Bo-Bo design having 22.5 T (Tonnes) axle load is upgradable to 25 Tonnes with a design speed of 120 kmph.
The locomotives can be tracked through GPS for its strategic use through embedded software and Antennae being lifted through the servers on the ground through a microwave link.
This locomotive will be a game-changer for further movement of coal trains for Dedicated Freight Corridor, the ministry said.
The locomotive is capable of working on railway tracks with conventional OHE lines as well as on Dedicated Freight corridors with high rise OHE lines. It has air-conditioned driver cabs on either side and is equipped with a regenerative braking system which provides substantial energy savings during operations. These high horsepower locomotives will help to decongest the saturated tracks by improving the average speed of freight trains, the Railways said.
Madhepura Electric Locomotive Pvt. Ltd. (MELPL) will manufacture 800 State of the Art 12000 HP Electric Freight Locomotives in 11 years. As part of the project, factory along with township has been set up in Madhepura, Bihar with the capacity to manufacture 120 locomotives per year. The project will create more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs in the country. More than Rs 2000 crore has already been invested in the project by the company.
The new locomotive will as the most power full-electric locomotive in the world increase the speed of freight trains and will allow faster, safer and heavier freight trains to move across the country, thus reducing congestion in traffic.
It will also lead to considerable savings in energy consumption through regenerative braking.
The Indian Railways entered into Procurement cum Maintenance Agreement with Madhepura Electric Locomotive Pvt. Ltd. (MELPL), as part of the largest Foreign Direct Investment project of Indian Railways to transform the heavy freight transportation landscape of the country.
The project started in 2018 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the project on April 10, 2018 while the prototype locomotive was delivered in March 2018.
The locomotive made its maiden commercial run between Deen Dayal Upadhaya Station to Shivpur on May 18, 2020.
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 "First 12000 HP 'Made in India' Locomotive")
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