Representative image of Indian Railways.
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New Delhi: The Indian Railways is planning to produce push-pull locomotives on a large scale with an investment of Rs 15,000 crore.
Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW), Varanasi, the production unit of the railways, will manufacture 600 push-pull locomotives. The BLW will invite tenders shortly, an official in the railways said.
The push-pull loco is fully electrified, and the estimated cost per loco would be about Rs 12 crore. The manufacturer of push-pull locos at BLW will have 35 years of maintenance responsibility, said the official.
Earlier known as Diesel Locomotive Works, it was renamed BLW in 2020 after the production unit stopped making diesel locos.
As per the railways plan, around 100 push-pull locomotives will be used for hauling passenger trains, while the remaining 500 will be used for freight operations, said the official.
In a push-pull train, two locomotives at both ends of the train are used at the same time, being controlled by one driver.
The train moves faster in the push-pull method, and detention time at stations is reduced, improving turnaround time.
The placement of the rake will be easy, and there will be no need to shunt or reverse the train for a forward journey.
The railways is also working on pressing into service two non-air-conditioned trains equipped with push-pull locos for Patna and Mumbai destinations, for which four locos are being made at Chittaranjan Loco Works in West Bengal.
These trains have non-AC compartments with a combo of unreserved and sleeper 3-tier coaches. These trains will have improved interiors and best-in-class passenger amenities, as provided on Vande Bharat trains.