Parliament panel raises concerns over production of electric locomotives

Raising concerns over missed targets in electric locomotive production, a parliamentary standing committee has asked the Railway Ministry to closely monitor the manufacturing capacity of production

Raising concerns over missed targets in electric locomotive production during this financial year, a parliamentary standing committee has asked the Railway Ministry to closely monitor the manufacturing capacity of production units.

The Standing Committee on Railways, in its report presented in Parliament on Thursday, noted that with the national transporter heading towards 100 per cent electrification on broad-gauge lines, the requirement of diesel locomotives would reduce substantially, while that of the electric ones would increase to a great extent.

The committee also noted that the Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW) and the Patiala Locomotive Works (PLW) were given targets to manufacture 450 and 200 electric locomotives for 2022-23 and 2023-24 respectively.

While BLW manufactured 104 electric locos during the 2021-22 financial year till February 2022, PLW manufactured 331, it said.

"The committee are of the firm belief that manufacturing of electric locos should be accorded highest priority since the demand of these locos would increase manifold after achieving the target of 100% electrification, Commissioning of DFCs and introduction of newly announced Vande Bharat Trains etc.

"Therefore, the committee reiterate their earlier recommendation and emphasize on the ministry to have a close monitoring on the capacity of their production units and prospective need of electric locos," it said.

In its reply, the Railways stated that "production of electric locomotives have been consistently increasing since last few years to cater to requirement of additional electric locos commensurate with increased pace of electrification".

It further said that in order to meet the requirement of electric locomotives commensurate with the enhanced pace of electrification, the BLW and the PLW have been entrusted with the responsibility of manufacturing them.