Bids opened for procurement of 200 electric locomotives

Going ahead with the bidding process for procurement of 200 high-power electric locomotives, railways on Tuesday opened the technical bids, submitted by a Japanese consortium.

Railways is procuring 9,000-horse power (hp) electric locomotives for the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC).

First Freight Joint Venture comprising Kawasaki, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electric and Mitsubishi Corporate had submitted their bids for procurement of the 9,000-HP locomotives for the Western DFC.

"We will evaluate the technical bids and then the financial bids will be opened," a senior Railway Ministry official said. "The finalisation of the bidding process and placement of orders are expected to be by the year end."

The state-of-the-art locomotives with IGBT technology are being procured with Japanese assistance.

Japanese assistance involves transfer of technology to Chittaranjan Locomotive Factory at Dankuni in West Bengal. As per the agreement with Japan, out of 200 locos, 100 will be manufactured at Dankuni after the transfer of technology.

While 40 will be imported from Japan as per the arrangement, 60 will be assembled at Dankuni facility. The rest 100 will be manufactured at Dankuni. The Western DFC will cover around 1,534 kms from Dadri to Mumbai, passing through Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Railways will run the double-stack container service on the Western corridor. The Eastern corridor will have a length of 1,839 kms, connecting Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni in West Bengal, while passing through the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.