Indian Railways Siemens loco at Dahod

Photos: @AshwiniVaishnaw/X

INDIA: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has inspected the first of the 9 000 hp EF-9K electric freight locomotives being produced by Siemens Mobility and Indian Railways at Dahod in Gujarat.

In January 2023, Siemens Mobility beat Alstom to win a Rs260bn contract to supply 1 200 electric locomotives over 11 years and provide 35 years of full-service maintenance. This was the largest single locomotive order in the history of Siemens Mobility, and the largest order in the history of Siemens India which was established in 1867 when Werner von Siemens and his brothers built the Indo-European telegraph line from London to Kolkata.

The locomotives are being assembled at the Indian Railways factory in Dahod, with 89% domestic content and work undertaken by IR staff. Maintenance is to be undertaken at Indian Railways depots in Vishakhapatnam, Raipur, Kharagpur and Pune.

The EF-9K is designed to haul 4 500 tonne double-stack container at a maximum speed of 120 km/h on the Dedicated Freight Corridors, raising the average speed of freight trains from 20-25 km/h to 50-60 km/h.

The IGBT traction equipment is produced at Siemens Mobility factories in India. Wabtec has a Rs13bn contract to supply ILS series braking systems from its Hosur plant in Tamil Nadu and provide maintenance services.

Crew facilities include air-conditioning and a toilet.

Visiting the factory on March 1, Vaishnaw said the locomotive ‘looks like a computer centre’ inside. The contract includes provision to manufacture standard gauge locomotives for export, and the minister said locos would be produced in Dahod for overseas use within the next three years.

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