GE-T, BHEL, Indian Railways to form JV company

Bangalore, Oct 21: Global Diesel locomotive technology leader, GE Transportation and state owned Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd (BHEL) have joined forces to compete for the 1000 diesel locomotive tender issued by the Indian Railways.

GE-T was recently shortlisted by the Indian Railways to compete for this tender. Alone with BHEL and Indian Railways, GE-T intend to form a joint venture company for this purpose. It planned to supply diesel locomotives based on the company's global 'Evolution Series' platform, which was the most technologically advanced, fuel-efficient and low emissions locomotive in the world, a GE-T release said here on Tuesday, Oct 21. Evolution Series was one of the best-selling product and more than 2800 units were in use at present. It delivered five per cent higher fuel efficiency and a 40 per cent reduction in emissions over previous locos.

GE-T President and CEO, Lorenzo Simonelli, said BHEL's know-how, customer centricity and local operations would help GE to delivery its product to Indian railways in a timely and cost-effective manner.

For more than 45 years, BHEL had been a leading supplier of propulsion systems and locomotives to Indian Railways. It manufacturer about 160 electric locos and supplied over 4000 sets of electric propulsion systems to Diesel Locomotive Works.

GE-T has established itself as a global technology leader, with close to 4000 researchers and engineers working at GE-T's John F Welch Technology Centre in the city. This is its first and largest integrated, multi-disciplinary R and D Centre outside the US.

The US major had earlier bagged a 300 mainline locomotives to Chinese railways.

UNI