Indian Railways Boosts Locomotive Production Target By 27 Per Cent For FY25, Here's What It Entails

Indian Railways has increased its locomotive production target for the fiscal year 2025 by 27 per cent to 1,500 units, according to a report by The Economic Times

This annual production target will remain unchanged until the fiscal year 2027.

The national transporter operates eight production units across the country where it manufactures wheels, axles, locomotives and coaches. The railways had aimed to complete the current fiscal year with 1,180 new locomotives.

As part of its efforts to increase freight train services, the railways plans to manufacture 1,240 locomotives of the WAG 9H model in FY25.

Additionally, 260 locomotives of the WAP 7 variant, primarily for passenger train operations, will be manufactured in the same year.

According to the latest plan, 1,300 WAG 9H locomotives will be produced annually in FY26 and FY27, along with 200 units of the WAP 7 variant each year during this period.

The overall coach production target for FY25 has been modestly revised upward by 4.6 per cent from the earlier plan, with 8,145 coaches expected to be rolled out from the railways' production units.

This is a significant increase from the production target of 6,560 coaches in FY24. This includes production programmes for Vande Bharat and Amrit Bharat coach variants.

Within these, Indian Railways aims to produce 5,688 coaches of the Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) variant in FY25, up from 4,934 units planned for FY24. Most LHB coaches, at 2,162 units, will continue to be manufactured at the Modern Coach Factory in Raebareli.

The railways also aim to produce 3,017 self-propelled coaches in FY25, including variants for rapid metro, regional metro, Vande metro, and Gati Shakti trains, among others.

In this category, 2,016 units will be manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, while 618 units are expected to be produced at the Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthala.