Indian Railways Awards Major Electric Locomotive Maintenance Deal to Alstom

Alstom has secured a new maintenance contract for electric freight locomotives in India through its joint venture with Indian Railways, Madhepura Electric Locomotive Private Limited.

The €62 million agreement, awarded by Indian Railways, covers maintenance work for WAG-12B electric locomotives at the Sabarmati locomotive depot. The contract applies to the remaining 300 locomotives yet to be delivered under the original 2015 deal for 800 units and will run until February 2031.

Under the terms of the contract, Alstom will carry out both scheduled and unscheduled maintenance to meet strict reliability and availability targets. The scope includes material supply, locomotive washing, logistics support and the use of remote diagnostics to monitor performance and condition.

The new agreement builds on Alstom’s existing maintenance operations at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh and Nagpur in Maharashtra, where the first 500 locomotives from the fleet are already being maintained using modern depot facilities and digital technologies.

Delivered as part of Alstom’s FlexCare Perform maintenance programme, the work also covers upkeep of depot infrastructure and the deployment of Prompt Response Teams. These teams will be positioned at key locations with specialist tools and critical spare parts to enable rapid intervention and reduce locomotive downtime. The contract also continues Alstom’s training programme for Indian Railways staff, which has so far seen more than 22,000 employees receive skills development support.

The Prima T8 WAG-12B locomotives form part of a landmark €3.5 billion contract awarded to Alstom in 2015. The 12,000-horsepower, double-section electric locomotives are designed to haul loads of around 6,000 tonnes and play a central role in India’s push towards greener and more digitally enabled freight transport, offering higher capacity with significantly lower carbon emissions than diesel alternatives.

Olivier Loison, Managing Director, Alstom India said:

"It is an honour to be Indian Railways’ partner of choice again, as it is reflective of the legacy established by MELPL and Alstom. Over the last decade we have worked collaboratively with the IR organization in supporting their freight revolution vision. We are thrilled to be trusted, for our remarkable maintenance capabilities and our reliability and availability track record.”

Image: Alstom