Modi launches India's most powerful electric locomotive in Bihar: 10 facts

Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveilsIndia's first 12,000 horsepower electric locomotive from Bihar's Madhepura locomotive factory on Tuesday.

Modi
reached Bihar to attend the centenary celebrations of the Champaran Satyagraha as a part of "Chalo Champaran Campaign". The theme of the centenary celebrations of the Champaran Satyagraha is "Satyagraha se Swachhagrah". Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Union minister Radha Mohan Singh and other dignitaries received PM Modi.  

Here are few things to know about India's first 12,000 horsepower electric locomotive:

1. Developed at Madhepura's Electric Locomotive Factory, the all-electric high-speed train is the first big Make-in-India project completed by Alstom of France.

2. Each double section locomotive will have a hauling capacity of 6,000 tonnes. With a speed of 120 km/hr, the high-speed all-electric locomotive will reduce the congestion faced by Indian railways. The heavy haulage locomotives will be used transport coal and iron ore confirmed a senior railway ministry official.  

3. With 100% electrification, the new locomotive will not only bring down operating costs for the Railways but will significantly cut down greenhouse gas emissions as well

4. With the launch of this locomotive, India will be competing with Russia, China, Germany and Sweden that have successfully run 12,000 horsepower and above capacity electric Locomotives. 

5. Equipped with IGBT based propulsion technology, the locomotive will have the ability to endure the tough Indian climate. 

6. Make in India: Alstom is expected to deliver a total of 800 high horsepower locomotives over a period of 11 years. The entire project will cost Rs 200 million. The first five locomotives will be imported while the remaining 795 will be manufactured in the country under the Make in India programme, according to the agreement. 

7. Under the Make-in-India project, about 35 locos will be manufactured at the Madhepura facility in the next fiscal (2019-20) and 60 in 2020-21. This project creates thousands of jobs for the local people as 90% of the components sourced locally, Alstom said in a press release. 

8. Modi will lay the foundation stone for four sewerage projects in Patna, an official release said on Monday. The entire sewerage projects will cost the government Rs 11.11 million. The four plants, along with 29 other ongoing projects in Bihar under the Namami Gange scheme, once completed will leave no untreated sewage water from Patna flowing into Ganga.  

9. Around 20,000 Swachhagrahis (ambassadors of cleanliness movement) — 10,000 from Bihar and the rest from other states - at Gandhi Maidan here on the occasion, East Champaran District Magistrate Raman Kumar told reporters. "The Prime Minister's message to Swachhagrahis will be a true tribute to Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) from the land of Champaran, especially on the occasion of the concluding ceremony of Satyagraha centenary celebrations," Kumar said.
 

10. PM Narendra Modi is also likely to flag off a new bi-weekly train, Humsafar Express, connecting Katihar to New Delhi.