Railways to produce 1800 more electric locomotives

Vadodara, Sep 1 (UNI) Indian railways is required to add another 1800 electric locomotives to its existing fleet of 3100 as the Ministry had formulated a plan to carry 8000 million passengers and 1200 tonnes freight traffic by the end of XIth plan, Minister of State for Railways Naran Rathwa today said.

Laying the foundation stone for a Rs 96-crore Periodical Overhaulting (POH) shop for electric locos at Dabhoi, about 30 km from here, Mr Rathwa said the Ministry had felt the urgent need for setting up POH workshops in order to meet the requirement.

''The present hold of electric locos of Indian railways is 3100, while the existing capacity of POH workshops is 405 electric locos per annum,'' the Minister said, adding that the Dabhoi POH shop was expected to be completed by March 2009.

During the last three years, Mr Rathwa said, his Ministry had spent about Rs 1000 crore on various railway projects in Gujarat and thus contributed a lot in the development of the state.

The Minister also asserted that the broad gauge conversion work of both 30 km long Pratapnagar-Dabhoi narrow gauge line and 21 km long Dabhoi-Chandod line would be completed by December this year.

UNI