Indian Railways has received Alstom’s 300th locomotive

Alstom has supplied Indian Railways with its 300th WAG12B electric locomotive capable of towing heavy goods trains at high speed, meeting the freight operator’s ambitious targets. This is according to Railway Supply, quoting RailwayPro.

The electric locomotive is capable of towing trains weighing 6,000 tonnes at a maximum speed of 120km/h. The locomotive was delivered from Alstom’s state-of-the-art locomotive maintenance depot in Nagpur, which was inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2022.

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Equipped with Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT) based propulsion technology, these e-locos will have considerable savings in energy consumption with the use of regenerative braking. The technology is also helpful towards making the acceleration process more efficient by reducing the heat generation and traction noise. Additionally, it will not only bring down operational costs, but also reduce the congestion faced by Indian Railways.

Alstom has been awarded €3.5 billion to supply Indian Railways with 800 powerful 12,000hp (9MW) twin-section locomotives for freight operations. As part of the contract, Alstom’s Nagpur depot will service 250 WAG12B electric locomotives, starting with the 60251 series.

The WAG-12B locomotive is being built at one of India’s largest integrated manufacturing plants in Madhepur, Bihar, as part of a joint venture between Alstom and Indian Railways. It is the largest foreign direct investment project in the Indian railways sector. The facility has an installed production capacity of 120 locomotives per year.

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