Special Correspondent
New Delhi : Indian Railways has manufactured its most powerful 12,000 horsepower locomotive which is Made in India. India has entered the most elite list of countries having 12,000 horsepower and higher capacity electric locomotives, with this feather in the cap of Indian railways. Also, India ranks 6th in this list after Russia, China, Germany and Sweden. India pioneers in commissioning the locomotive on broad gauge track and no other nation has done that before.
The all-new indigenous super-powerful 12,000 horsepower electric locomotive named WAG12 with Number 60027 first commercially ran from Deen Dayal Upadhaya Junction at 02.08 pm in long haul formation consisting of 118 wagons to Shivpur on 18th May 2020. This high capacity engine is manufactured in Madhepura Electric Locomotive Pvt. Ltd. (MELPL) in Bihar. The Indian Railways officially tweeted about the flagging off and has also released the video of them along with the details of the said locomotive.
These locomotives are contemporary IGBT based, 3 phase drive and 12000 horsepower electric locomotive. These locos will not only increase the speed of freight trains but also allow faster, safer and heavier freight trains to move across the country, thus reducing congestion in traffic.
It claimed that this will also lead to considerable savings in energy consumption through regenerative braking. The locomotive has twin Bo-Bo design to run at the axle load capacity of up to 25 Tonnes and at a speed of 120 kmph. It is said that manufacturing this loco will be a turning point for further movement of coal trains for Dedicated Freight Corridor. Additionally, 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.
The press release of Ministry of Railways states that Madhepura Electric Locomotive Pvt. Ltd. (MELPL) will manufacture 800 State of the Art 12000 HP Electric Freight Locomotives in 11 years and yearly production will be 120 locomotives per year.
As part of the project, factory along with township has been set up in Madhepura, Bihar and this project is estimated to create more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs in the country. More than Rs 2000 Crores has already been invested in the project by the company.
The Madhepura factory is the largest integrated Green Field facility built to the highest standards of quality and safety spread across a massive 250 acres of land. This project is set up under the ambitious Make in India programme.
The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi had inaugurated this project on 10th April 2018 and the prototype locomotive was delivered in March 2018.
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