Cabinet approves electric locomotive factory at Madhepura district

New Delhi, Feb 5 (ANI): The Cabinet has approved Ministry of Railways' proposal for setting up green field electric and diesel locomotive factories at Madhepura and Marhowra in districts of Madhepura and Saran Bihar.

The factories will be set up as a Joint Venture between Ministry of Railways with equity of 26 per cent and a leading international manufacturer, who will also bring in state-of-the-art technology.

The selection of joint venture partner will be through an international competitive bidding.

The short listed bidders include leading locomotive manufacturers. M/s Alsiom, France, M/s Bombardier, Germany and M/s Siemens, Germany for Electric locomotive factory and M/s GE, India and M/s EMD, USA for Diesel locomotive factory.

The MOR will procure 800 electric locomotives of 12000 HP each and 1000 diesel locomotives of 4500/6000 HP each from these factories over a period of 10 years. These locomotives will also be maintained by the joint venture company over the next 25-26 years.

These projects aim at introducing international best practices in management, manufacture and maintenance of the rolling stock. The locomotive availability and energy efficiency standards will be comparable to the best internationally. While the locomotive will be available for traffic use for 95 per cent of the time, its energy efficiency will be 5-10 per cent higher over existing fleet on IR.

Set up at an estimated price of about 2000 crore, the two factories are expected to generate employment and act as catalyst to industrialise the Madhepura and Marhowra region. (ANI)