The Railway Board has been advised by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Locomotives to give the manufacture of electric locomotives in the nation high priority. For electrification of the entire rail system, an adequate number of electric locomotives need to be accessible.
On Thursday, the Standing Committee on Railways delivered the government’s action taken report (ATR), which included recommendations and observations about the Ministry of Railways’ requests for grants. This made reference to the earlier.
According to a research led by Radha Mohan Singh, the Railways is working toward electrifying all broad gauge lines, which will drastically cut down on the demand for diesel locomotives and enhance the availability of electric locomotives.
The committee took note of the targets set for the years 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 for the production of 450 and 200 electric locomotives, respectively, by the Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW) and Patiala Locomotive Works (PLW). From February 2021 to February 2022, these two units produced 104 and 331 electric locomotives, respectively.
The Committee is adamant that after accomplishing the goal of 100% electrification, Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) commissioning, and the recently announced introduction of Vande Bharat trains, among other things, manufacturing of electric locomotives should be given priority. The demand will dramatically rise.
The Committee advised the Ministry to carefully examine the capacity of its production units and the future need for electric locomotives and reiterates its earlier advice. The manufacturing of electric locomotives has steadily expanded over the years to satisfy the need for more electric locomotives commensurate with the increased pace of electrification, according to the Ministry of Railways’ action taken statement.