Indian Railways Inducts 100th ‘Made In India’ 12,000 HP Electric Locomotive

It is a proud moment for Indian Railways as 100th 12000 HP WAG-12B has been inducted in Indian Railways fleet. The loco is named WAG 12 B with number 60100.

Sustainable mobility provider Alstom is slated to deliver 800 completely electric high-powered double-section locomotives of 12,000 (9 MW) that will be used for freight services. It will be capable of haul 6,000 tonne at a speed of 120 km per hour and will be placed for operations on major freight routes that even include the Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC).

Madhepura in Bihar hosts an integrated green field manufacturing facility in which these Prima T8TM WAG-12B e-locos are built.

The manufacturing operation company and the national transporter had agreed on a deal in 2015 that led to the creation of this joint venture for the initiative, which is the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) project of the Railways.

These high horsepower locomotives will help to decongest the saturated tracks by improving average speed and loading capacity of freight trains.

“These superior electric locomotives built under the ‘Make-in-India’ initiative, are playing a key role in revolutionizing the freight movement in the country. So far, these e-Locos have traversed across all Railway divisions and are performing well,” the Ministry of Railways said in a statement.

These locomotives are proving to be a game changer for further movement of coal trains for Dedicated Freight Corridors. The locomotives can be tracked through GPS for its strategic use through embedded software and Antennae being lifted through the servers on ground through microwave link.

These WAG 12B e-Locos have already clocked over 4.8 million km hauling a wide range of commodities across 17 States and two Union Territories.

First 12000 HP Made in India Locomotive was put into operation by Indian Railways from Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Jn Station in May 2020.