Alstom’s second locomotive maintenance depot, located at Nagpur, will be ready by mid-2022 and will start homing locomotives from the last quarter of the year, according to the manufacturer.
WAG-12B class 12,000 hp locomotives, produced at Alstom’s Madhepura factory, will be maintained at the new facility. If completed on schedule by mid-2022, the first batch of WAG-12s homed at Nagpur are likely to arrive at the depot starting October 2022. 50 units are to be homed at Nagpur by March 2023 as per the contract with Indian Railways, says Alstom.
Recruitment of supervisory staff at the Nagpur depot has begun. According to Alstom, the remaining staff for the facility will be sourced from Indian Railways.
Alstom’s WAG-12 Maintenance Depots
Work on the Nagpur depot began in 2020 and progressed steadily despite COVID-19 related disruptions. The new facility is located right next to the existing electric locomotive shed at Ajni. ELS Ajni currently homes WAG-9 and WAP-7 class locomotives.
The first of two depots specified under the Government of India contract with Alstom was set up at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. As of February 2022, it holds 177 WAG-12B units. Both depots are expected to hold 250 locomotives each.
In 2015, Alstom won a contract from Indian Railways to produce 800 units of 12,000 hp freight locomotives, primarily meant to serve on the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor. The project for a new locomotive factory at Madhepura was originally sanctioned in 2007-08.
