Clw In Plan To Indigenise Locomotive Tech
Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW), which rolled out the first steam-based engine made in India nearly five decades ago, has embarked on an ambitious plan to indigenise a new state-of-the-art locomotive technology.
India is the first country in Asia-Pacific region to have acquired this three-phase technology from Adtranz, a 50:50 joint venture between Asea Brown Boveri of Switzerland and Daimler Benz of Germany, said CLW general manager N K Chidambaram.
With an initial investment of Rs 30 crore, CLW has expanded its shop-floor infrastructure and set up a centre for design and development here to assemble 20 world-class locomotives for freight trains and five for passenger trains next year.
The first phase of indigenisation will localise 20 to 25 per cent of components in the first quarter of the next financial year, Chidambaram said.
This will slash the unit cost of importing 6,000 horse-powered locomotives from Rs 19 crore to Rs 9 crore in the next two to three years, he added. The second phase, during 2000-2001, will indigenise 30 to 40 per cent of components and about 50 to 60 per cent of parts will be sourced locally by 2002-2003.
Adtranz has designed, built and supplied 33 electric mainline passenger and freight locomotives against a project awarded in July 1993 by the Indian Railways. The two types of locomotives 11 wap5 for passenger and 22 wag9 for freight will pioneer the use of GTO traction and three-phase asynchronous drives in India, Chidambaram said.
The design has been adapted to suit the countrys terrain and high ambient temperatures. The ten-year project encompasses transfer of know-how to enable local manufacture of three-phase AC locomotives at the CLW for future requirements.
Chidambaram said the indigenisation process would create a new Rs 1,500 crore industry to make complicated equipment which the CLW will source to put together microprocessor-controlled locomotives. Several public sector and private companies have shown interest in setting up facilities to make these components.
The three-phase technology requires 15 to 20 per cent less energy due to a regenerative system which produces and stores electricity when energy is generated while braking. This could make a substantial difference in the final bill. Also, maintenance costs drop as a result of eliminating commutator and brush gear in traction motor which drives the engine, Chidambaram said.
With sixty per cent of freight traffic, amounting to 10 lakh tonne per day, and forty-five per cent of passengers totalling over one crore on electric traction, the focus of the Indian Railways now is to increase load, speed, efficiency and reliability of trains besides their schedules as laying new tracks requires massive capital induction.
Chidambaram said CLW, which started operating on January 26, 1950, has now phased out steam-based and diesel-based locomotives. We plan to phase out the ancient technology used for producing electric locomotives as well after bringing in the latest one and indigenising it as quickly as feasible.
CLW, an ISO 9001 unit, supplied 155 locomotives to the Indian Railways last year against a total demand of 200, leaving the balance for Bhel. In 1997-98, it hopes to sell 160 locomotives and record a turnover of Rs 650 crore against Rs 600 crore last fiscal.
India has the largest rail network in the world crisscrossing 62,462 km in all directions with the Ninth Plan (1997-2002) projecting a demand for 800 to 900 locomotives.
Adtranz is the worlds largest provider of complete railway systems for local, urban, regional and inter-urban passenger and freight transport.