The Hindu Business Line : Minister lauds R&D efforts on electric locos

Kolkata June 24 The Government has sanctioned Rs 110 crore towards meeting costs of a modernisation programme for Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW).

Announcing this in Chittaranjan (Bengal-Jharkhand border), while on a day's visit to the nation's first locomotive production unit in West Bengal named after Bengal freedom-fighter Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, the Union Minister of State for Railways, Mr R. Velu, said this should help CLW to increase its current production capacity by another 50 electric locomotives, that is, from 250 to 300.

He felt this was necessary to meet the projected increase in demand for both freight and passenger electric locomotives in the 11th Plan period. Impressed by the initiatives taken on the innovation and cost reduction fronts, the Union Minister urged the CLW team of officers and men to further strengthen the in-house R&D efforts with a view to "finding quick solutions for reliability enhancement efforts as well as indigenisation.

CLW, through sustained collaborative efforts, has indigenously developed the highly sophisticated Application Specific Integrated Circuits, and other diagnostic tools and equipment, which have reduced the cost of an electric locomotive by Rs 30 lakh.

Mr Velu particularly lauded CLW's path-breaking initiatives, which have contributed to the development of the WAP-7 (passenger), which can haul trains of 26 coaches, with a balancing speed potential of 140 kmph.

According to Mr V. Shankar, General Manager, CLW, has been successful in providing cost competitive traction solutions with less dependence on imports.

He said the cost of the 3-phase electric locos, which were imported at a cost of Rs 29 crore each in 1995-96, have today come down to Rs 12.5 crore through indigenisation.

The absolute cost increase for conventional tap changer locomotives in the last five years, according to Mr Shankar, was only 8-10 per cent, which was negligible considering the steep increase in costs of various inputs.

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