Alstom has delivered the 500th Prima T8 e-locomotive to the Indian Railways from its Madhepura manufacturing site in Bihar.
The e-locomotive was flagged off from Alstom’s world-class manufacturing facility in Madhepura, Bihar, in the presence of key dignitaries from Indian Railways Mr. Manish Kumar, Chief Administrative Officer and senior officials from Alstom at an event marking this project milestone. The Prima T8 e-locomotive is fully made in India
As part of the contract with Indian Railways worth EUR 3.5 billion, Alstom is supplying 800 high-powered double-section Prima T8 locomotives of 12,000 HP (9 MW) for freight service. Designated by Indian Railways as WAG-12B, these locomotives are capable of hauling ~6,000 tonnes rakes at a top speed of 120 km/h. To ensure high availability of India’s most advanced freight locomotives and reduce maintenance cost, Alstom has also built two ultramodern state-of-the-art maintenance depots at Saharanpur and Nagpur, using predictive technologies.
The WAG-12B locomotives are being built at one of India’s largest integrated greenfield manufacturing facilities at Madhepura, under a joint venture between Alstom and Indian Railways. This is the largest Foreign Direct Investment project in the Indian railway sector. The facility has an installed production capacity of 120 locomotives per annum and Alstom has progressively achieved near 90% localisation.
This project is a prime example of the ‘Make in India’ initiative, with more than 85% of the components sourced locally, reinforcing India’s local manufacturing capabilities. The project has placed India among an elite group of nations capable of producing high-horsepower locomotives domestically while fostering technological expertise within the country. Some of the key commodities moved over more than 120 million kilometres by these e-locos include – coal, cement, food grains, fertilisers, petrochemical products, minerals, and posts/ parcels, across entire geographical boundaries of the nation.
Equipped with Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT) based propulsion technology, these e-Locos have considerable savings in energy consumption with the use of regenerative braking. The technology is also helpful towards making the acceleration process more efficient by reducing the heat generation and traction noise. Additionally, it will not only bring down operational costs, but also reduce the congestion faced by Indian Railways.
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