A milestone was reached on Tuesday, 25th March when Alstom delivered its 500th electric locomotive to Indian Railways.

Alstom has been contracted to supply 800 high-powered double-section Prima T8 WAG12B locomotives for freight services, and the 500th locomotive to be completed was rolled out at Alstom’s factory at Madhepura in Bihar state.

The occasion was marked at a special ceremony attended by key dignitaries from Indian Railways, including Chief Administrative Officer Manish Kumar, and senior officials from Alstom.

The total contract value is €3.5 billion. The locomotives have a haulage capacity of 6,000 tonnes and a maximum speed of 120 kph.

As part of the contract, Alstom has built two ultra-modern state-of-the-art maintenance depots at Saharanpur and Nagpur that will use predictive technology to ensure high availability and reduce maintenance costs.

The manufacturing facilities at Madhepura were built under a Joint Venture between Alstom and Indian Railways and is its largest foreign direct investment project.

The Madhepura facilities have the capacity to construct 120 locomotives each year. Alstom is now sourcing more than 85 per cent of the components locally.

The locomotives are equipped with Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT) based propulsion technology, and feature regenerative braking to achieve considerable savings in energy consumption. This technology reduces heat generation and traction noise and contributes to more efficient acceleration.

Alstom has recently secured a contract from India to supply traction components and maintenance services for Vande Bharat sleeper trains, and Alstom has a facility in Madhepura to construct Prima locomotives in Kazakhstan.

“The delivery of our 500th e-loco underscores our commitment to modernise India’s railway infrastructure especially for freight, thereby driving economic growth.”

Olivier Loison, Managing Director, Alstom India