The Indian Railways on Monday (May 18, 2020) became the sixth country in the world to join the elite club of producing high horsepower locomotive indigenously. It was the first time, a high horsepower locomotive was operationalised on a broad gauge track in the world.
The locomotive has been produced under the Make in India programme. The project was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 10, 2018.
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.
This new engine is completely electric and will be specifically used to move goods. The Madhepur Electric Locomotive Pvt. Ltd. will manufacture more such engines in future. To be specific, 800 units over the period of 11 years.
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 from Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Jn to Barwadih via Dehri-on-Sone, Garhwa Road.
These locomotives are state of art IGBT based, 3 phase drive, 9000 KW (12000 horsepower) electric locomotive.
The locomotive is capable of 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 engine can be tracked via GPS. The engine is also capable of withstanding country’s extreme heat and humidity and has a hauling power of up to 6,000 tonnes. This new engine is powerful and is capable of doing high speed runs, thus will be a great addition to our rail network.
As per Alstom’s plan, they were suppossed to supply 10 locomotive by March this year but, are now running behind their schedule. This had happened because the initial prototypes had failed twice. Alstom has confirmed that 8 electric WAG12B freight locomotives have been delivered so far. These trains will mainly be used for goods wagons.
Sources – Cartoq, Zee News.