Clw To Manufacture First Indigenous 3-Phase Locos

The public sector Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) will start manufacturing the first indigenous three-phase electric locomotives, with technology acquired from railway major Adtranz.

The transfer of technology to CLW has gone very well. They (CLW) will start manufacturing the indigenous locomotives in 1998-99, president and managing director of ABB Daimler Benz Transport (Adtranz) India, Viren Srivastava, told PTI. He said with this India would become the first developing country to acquire the technology and indigenously manufacture three-phase locomotives.

Indian railways had bought the technology from Adtranz, a 50:50 joint venture between ABB and Daimler Benz, as part of a $200 million contract to buy 33 convertor locomotives, including 11 Wap 5s for passenger trains and 22 Wag 9s for goods trains.

 

He said West Bengal-based CLW would manufacture the mechanical parts and the electrical equipment (drives) would be sourced from outside. Srivastava said Adtranz, along with Cromptons, Kirloskar and public sector companies Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel) and NGEF had been shortlisted by CLW for awarding the contract for the supply of drives for the new locomotives.

Srivastava said Chittaranjan Locos would have a huge cost advantage. The cost of three-phase locos at CLW is estimated at Rs 11.5 crore in the first phase compared to Rs 22 crore of Adtranz, he said. CLW would be able to export the engines if they prove themselves, he added. The Indian railways subsidiary is planning to manufacture about ten three-phase locomotives in the first year and progressively increase it to 20 and 40 in the subsequent years. Ultimately, CLW will manufacture around 150 engines a year.

Srivastava said all the 33 locos supplied by Adtranz were in operation - 11 in Mumbai and Calcutta Rajdhani trains and 22 in freight trains in the eastern railways. He said there would be tremendous improvement in the performance of the railways with the arrival of new diesel engines and coaches.

New diesel engines from General Motors-Siemens combine and coaches from Fiat are likely to arrive in the second half of 1998. He said the diesel technology would be transferred to Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW), Varanasi, and the coaches to rail coach factory, Kapurthala.

The last of the 33 three-phase locomotives from Adtranz, which got embroiled in a controversy over alleged kickbacks, arrived in India in Dec 1996.

Of the 33 locomotives, 17 engines were fully imported, while the remaining 16 were supplied as semi-knocked down and completely knocked down (SKD and CKD) kits and were assembled at CLW. Srivastava said the only contractual obligation in the contract was that CLW cannot pass on the technology to a competitor.

He said with the three-phase locomotives, Indian railways would be able to achieve a speed of upto 160 km per hour, which was the standard speed for the first stage of development.