Indian Railways now has more than 7,000 electric locomotives in its fleet, having almost doubled its fleet from 3,865 units a decade ago.
Two Electric Locomotive Sheds on the Indian Railways have also crossed a unique milestone, and are now home to 300 or more locos eacch.
Electric Locomotive Shed (ELS) Gomoh in East Central Railway territory and ELS Bhilai in South East Central Railway territory have crossed the 300 unit mark in April 2020.
Both Gomoh and Bhilai sheds have doubled their holdings from a decade ago. At the end of May 2010, Gomoh was home to 148 units while Bhilai held 155 units of various classes, but mainly WAG-7 and WAG-9 class freight locos. Both sheds mainly serve coal and iron ore freight heavy areas of ECR and SECR.
With steady modernization of equipment at various facilities, sheds have been able to absorb a doubling of the number of units homed.
Rapidly Expanding Electric Locomotive Fleet on Indian Railways
Average holdings at most sheds have risen across India. This is due to a sharp increase in locomotive production from Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW). Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) and Diesel Modernisation Works (DMW) have also switched to production of electric locomotives.
Ramping up of production was taken up to meet the demand for electric locomotives as a result of electrification of several unwired routes across India.
Production of locomotives is expected to continue at a good pace for the next two financial years. Therefore, more sheds are likely to cross the 300 holding mark in the coming months.
This is a remarkable milestone for IR! Congratulations to those who are helping the nation further expand on the electric loco fleet with more numbers and features. With successful roll out and scalability achieved on 3 phase HOG capable locomotives for coaching stock, we should also look forward to the diesel-to-electric locomotive conversion project that will help us getting ~2,500 more 3-phase electric locos on EMD platform! It will greatly complement the WAG9 stock on mainstream freight haulage for years to come.