The Hindu Business Line : BHEL plans foray into advanced signalling equipment, locos

Chennai April 12 Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd is eyeing a big share of the Railway pie. The company has drawn up plans for getting into the manufacture of advanced signalling equipment and high horse-power (HP) locomotives.

The public sector `navaratna' produces locomotives from its plant at Jhansi. Incidentally, BHEL recently secured a Rs 1,000-crore order from the Indian Railways for the supply of 150 locomotives.

Signalling Equipment

"We want a bigger share of the pie," Mr A.K. Mathur, Director (Industrial Systems and Production), BHEL, told Business Line.

Towards this end, BHEL has two Memoranda of Understanding in place with overseas companies, one for modern signalling equipment and the other for production of high HP locomotives.

Pointing out that the Railways was aiming for a higher share of the transportation market, Mr Mathur noted that this would translate into a need for high HP engines.

Signalling equipment will also become important, both to increase the throughput of trains on a track and increased safety and reliability. Under the present signalling system, the train will have to leave the track, at least partially, so that the next train is given the green light to move on to the track. Modern systems have sensors that can tell when the last bogie of the train has left and wave in the next train.

Successful Completion

BHEL is also developing advanced traction motors for the existing engines (4,000 HP to 6,000 HP), so that the locomotives have a higher starting torque capacity.

The Indian Railways has placed a trial order of 30 such motors on BHEL, for which prototypes have been supplied. "The project shall be deemed completed after successful completion of all the 30 motors in service for two years, i.e., by November 2009," said a source in the Railways.

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