Rs 20,000 Crore Locomotives Project: Siemens At Rs 10.98 Crore Per Loco Price Leads The Race Against Alstom At Rs 19.46 Crore Bid

With a quotation of Rs 10.98 crore per locomotive, Siemens has edged past Alstom in the bidding race for the Rs 20,000 crore project involving manufacturing of 1,200 electric locos of 9,000 horsepower at Dahod in Gujarat.

Dahod is the main railway station on Delhi-Mumbai route.

According to the financial bidding documents opened yesterday (6 December), Alstom which is already making 12,000 HP locos at Madhepura in Bihar, has quoted the price at 19.46 crore.

The tenders for the ‘Make in India’ loco project were floated in April inviting major rolling stock players to participate in the mega initiative of Indian Railways for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone.

It is Indian Railways' first locomotive production unit in Gujarat and the project is expected to provide employment to thousands of people in the area.

The financial bids for the Dahod project are currently being examined by the tender committee. After the evaluation, the contract is expected to be awarded to the lowest bidder, according to the railways.

"Siemens Limited has emerged as the lowest bidder (L1) for the 9000 HP electric locomotives project in Dahod, Gujarat, India," a BSE filing said.

Besides manufacturing of 1,200 locos at Dahod facility, there would be a maintenance clause of 35 years for the successful bidder.

These locomotives will play a vital role in revolutionising the freight movement in the country and help to decongest the saturated tracks by improving the average speed and loading capacity of freight trains.

The locomotive with 9,000 HP capacity will be having a haulage capacity of 4,500 tonnes of load while the maximum speed of these locomotives will be up to 120 km per hour.

The 9,000 HP locomotives will be equipped with an automatic train protection system ‘Kavach’.

The railways expects that the first locomotive will be delivered from the factory in early 2024. The locomotive will be manufactured with the use of green energy and will have a green manufacturing tag.

The Dahod workshop, established in 1926 for periodic overhaul of steam locomotives, is being upgraded to electric locomotive manufacturing unit with infrastructural improvements. It is expected to provide direct and indirect employment to over 10,000 people.

The 1,200 locomotives will be manufactured at Dahod facility in 11 years from 2023-24 to 2033-34. The successful bidder will supply five locomotives in the first year and 35 in the second year. As many as 80 locomotives will be supplied per annum in the third and fourth years.

The production will be increased to 100 locomotives per annum in the fifth and the sixth year. Thereafter 160 locomotives will be manufactured per annum for five years till 2033-34.

9000 HP, 6 axle Co-Co Locomotive to be utilized all over Indian Railways Route for hauling 4,500 tonnes load with average speed of 75 kmph by single loco.

The nominated government depots for maintenance with holding capacity of 300 each will be at Kharagpur (West Bengal), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Pune (Maharashtra).