Indian Railways orders 1,200 freight locos from Siemens
Image credit: Siemens Mobility
Siemens Mobility is to build 1,200 electric locomotives for Indian Railways, making this the single largest locomotive order in the company’s history and its largest order of any kind in India.
Under the terms of the contract, valued at around €3bn (£2.7bn), Siemens Mobility will design, manufacture, commission and test the locomotives and provide 35 years of full service maintenance. Deliveries are planned over a period of 11 years.
The 9,000-horsepower (6.6MW) locomotives will be assembled in the Indian Railways factory in Dahod, in the state of Gujarat. Maintenance will be carried out in four Indian Railways depots located in Vishakhapatnam, Raipur, Kharagpur and Pune. Locomotive assembly and maintenance will be implemented together with the staff of Indian Railways.
These locomotives will be used for freight transport throughout the Indian Railways network and are specified to haul loads of 4,500 tons at a maximum speed of 120km/h, putting them among the most powerful freight locomotives in the world. They will be equipped with advanced propulsion systems that are also produced locally in Siemens Mobility factories in India, and the company’s proprietary Railigent platform will be used to deliver the highest availability and performance.
Image credit: Siemens Mobility
India has one of the world’s largest rail transport and logistics networks, used daily by 24 million passengers on more than 22,000 trains. Additionally, the Government of India plans to increase the share of railways for freight transport to 40-45 per cent from the current approximately 27 per cent. India is one of the few countries in the world that is close to achieving a fully electrified rail network.
"Siemens is supporting the sustainable transformation of India’s transportation sector as the country seeks to almost double freight capacity on its railways," said Siemens CEO Roland Busch. "I’m proud that this major order will help India achieve its ambitious goal of creating the world’s largest green rail network, as our locomotives will save more than 800 million tons of CO2 emissions over their lifecycle."
The history of Siemens in India dates back to 1867, when Werner von Siemens and his brothers built the Indo-European telegraph line from London to Calcutta.
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