The Indian Ministry of Railways has announced that agreements have been signed with Alstom and General Electric for manufacturing and maintenance of electric and diesel locomotives. The companies were selected through an international competitive bidding process. 800 electric locomotives and 1,000 diesel locomotives are to be manufactured and supplied from the factories set up by the companies at Madhepura (Bihar) and, respectively, Marhowra (Bihar) over a period of 11 years.
Two joint ventures (JV) have been set up for this purpose. The Ministry of Railways is a 26% stakeholder in these two JVs. The companies will also undertake maintenance and supervision of the first 500 locomotives by setting up maintenance facilities at Saharanpur, Nagpur, Roza and Ghandhidham.
The project also envisages transfer of technology for maintenance to the Indian Railways’ staff. The maintenance facilities will revert back to the Indian Railways on completion of the maintenance obligations, following which the maintenance would be carried out by the Indian Railways’ staff.
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