Exclusive Interview | 41 Rolling Stock
For 2018 , How Many locomotives has Alstom targeted for production this year and further handing over to Indian Railways ? When will these locomotives be used for Operations by the IR ?
As mentioned before , the supply of the electric locomotives will follow the plan originally agreed upon with the Indian Railways . The first prototype has been delivered to the Indian railways in February 2018 as promised , which will be followed by the second in 2019 . Post the trials and tests , the production will be increased to 35 in 2020 , 60 in 2021 and 100 each year till 2029 . A total of 800 double section freight electric locomotives will be supplied followed by the associated longterm maintenance of the said engines .
Given the recent decision of the Hon ’ ble Minister of Railways to put electrification of the non-electrified sections of Indian Railways on a fast track , the requirement of electric Locomotives is likely to increase substantially . To that end , we do hope to get an opportunity to serve this burgeoning demand for electric locomotives and manufacture electric locomotives well beyond what the current contract envisages .
How much of the Supply Chain of the Locomotive is within India ? Will there be further indigenization in India over the years of the project ?
The PRIMA ( WAG12 ) locomotive is made up of 2500 components out of which , 85-90 % has been sourced locally from India making this a true Make in India project .
It includes important components for the locomotive like the transformers from ABB , couplers from Faiveley , brakes from Knorr Bremse and so on .
The remaining 10-15 % or so has been supplied from across the globe , mostly from Alstom sites in France , primarily due to precise and sensitive nature of the parts .
Alstom is already at a very high level of localization for this project to keep it competitive and continues to look at opportunities to further increase the localization aspect of the project .
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