Image for representation.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
As the Indian Railways intensifies its electrification efforts along its network, it is also finding methods to put its soon-to-be-redundant diesel locomotives to good use, by repurposing them for exports.
Railway PSU RITES chairman Rahul Mithal told The Hindu that the company, in close collaboration with the design team in the Railway Ministry, is working on overhauling diesel locomotives which still have a codal life of 15 to 20 years left, to suit the export requirements for African countries.
RITES has received two orders for repurposed Indian locomotives from South African mineral and steel plants — one worth ₹35 crore in the second quarter of the current financial year, and the other worth ₹50 crore in the third quarter.
Selling secondhand
Mr. Mithal quipped, “It is like buying a secondhand car. So even though both orders are for three locomotives each, the cost varies from order to order depending on horsepower of the locomotive and balance years of life left.”
“African countries are keen to receive the locomotives as the revival of their economy depends on mineral movement, including on rail networks. It is their lifeline. And because they are secondhand the cost of locomotives is also lucrative for them,” Mr. Mithal said.
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Gauge conversion
The challenge now before RITES and the Railway Ministry is to convert Indian locomotives which are designed to run on a broad gauge network of 1,676 mm to the much smaller Cape Gauge network of 1,067 mm on which trains run in more than twelve African countries, including South Africa.
Overhauling the locomotives will involve modifying the bogies which, in technical terms, are the instruments on which the superstructure of the engine rests. “Broad gauge locomotives have a wider wheel base, so to convert it into Cape Gauge, modification is required in the bogies, wheels and under-frame,” Mr. Mithal explained.
He said that RITES would purchase the six best possible locomotives from Indian Railways and convert them to Cape Gauge. “This is the first time ever that we will be attempting gauge conversion for in-service locomotives,” he said. “If successful, this will be a major technological breakthrough because there are a large number of spare diesel locomotives in the pipeline. We are designing this modification and looking to get these prototypes approved in the next few months. If we are confident we can do it then there is a huge potential market for us to tap,” he added.
Export revenue potential
RITES has started developing design details in collaboration with Indian Railways and the company expects to get an approval on design in the next four to six months.
Until last year, the Railways had 10,238 electric and 4,543 diesel locomotives. “The key thing is the design modification and approval of prototype. Then based on the population of spare locomotives, we will be continuously doing pricing and hope to reinvent the export revenue stream,” Mr. Mithal said.
Published – November 07, 2024 10:31 pm IST