WAG12

The loco is named WAG12 with Number 60027.
It was a proud moment for Indian Railways, as it became 6th country in the world to join the elite club of producing high horse power locomotives indigenously.
It is the first time, a high horsepower locomotive has been operationalised on a broad gauge track in the world.
The locomotive has been produced under Make in India programme. The Madhepura factory is the largest integrated Green Field facility built to the highest standards of quality and safety with production capacity of 120 locomotives and spread across a massive 250 acres.

Advantages of WAG12

These locomotives are state of art IGBT-based, 3-phase drive, 9000 KW (12000 horsepower) electric locomotives.
The locomotive with a twin Bo-Bo design having 22.5 T (Tonnes) axle load is upgradeable to 25 Tonnes with a design speed of 120 kmph.
This locomotive will be a game changer for the further movement of coal trains for the Dedicated Freight Corridor.
The locomotives can be tracked through GPS for its strategic use through embedded software and Antennae being lifted through the servers on the ground through a microwave link.
The locomotive has air-conditioned driver cabs on either side. The locomotive is equipped with a regenerative braking system which provides substantial energy savings during operations.
These high horsepower locomotives will help to decongest the saturated tracks by improving the average speed of freight trains.
Madhepura Electric Locomotive Pvt. Ltd. (MELPL) will manufacture 800 State of the Art 12000 HP Electric Freight Locomotives in 11 years and being one of the most powerful full electric locomotives in the world will increase the speed of freight trains and will allow faster, safer and heavier freight trains to move across the country, thus reducing congestion in traffic.
It will also lead to considerable savings in energy consumption through regenerative braking.

Madhepura factory

As part of the project, a factory along with the township has been set up in Madhepura, Bihar with the capacity to manufacture 120 locomotives per year. The project will create more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs in the country. More than Rs 2000 Crores has already been invested in the project by the company.
Along with the factory, socio-economic development in Madhepura is being driven by this project. As part of CSR initiative skill centres are being set up in Madhepura to impart training to local people.
It may be noted that Indian Railways entered into Procurement cum Maintenance Agreement with Madhepura Electric Locomotive Pvt. Ltd. (MELPL), as part of the largest Foreign Direct Investment project of Indian Railways to transform the heavy freight transportation landscape of the country. This is the ‘Make in India’ Initiative by India Railways (IR).

Source: PIB

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