Big Make-In-India Success: Indian Railways Starts Operating Its Most Powerful Ever Locomotive WAG 12

The Indian Railways has commissioned its most powerful locomotive till date - WAG 12 and it hauled 118 goods wagons from Deen Dayal Upadhyaya junction to Barwadih via Dehri-on-Sone.

The Made-In-India locomotive was manufactured at the Madhepura Electric Loco Factory in Bihar, and was commissioned into service at the Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Jn Station yesterday (18 May).

After this development, India becomes just the sixth country in the world to produce high-horse power engine indigenously. It is also the first time such a high horse powered engine has been operationalised on any broad gauge track in the world.

A video of two sets of WAG 12 engines was posted by PIB.

The Madhepura Electric Loco Factory is capable of building 120 locomotives every year. The factory will manufacture 800 such locomotives in the next 11 years. It is expected to create more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs.

The WAG-12 locomotive designed to haul freight, packs a whopping 12,000 horsepower and is capable of hauling loads up to 6,000 tonnes at a top speed of 120 kmph.

WAG-12 comes with a with twin Bo-Bo design and can be tracked through GPS with the help of an embedded software.

WAG-12 is capable of working on railway tracks with conventional OHE lines as well as on Dedicated Freight corridors with high rise OHE lines. It has air-conditioned driver cabs on either side.

It is also equipped with regenerative braking system which provides substantial energy savings during operations. These high horse power locomotives will help to decongest the saturated tracks by improving average speed of freight trains. The locomotive thus is considered to be a game-changer for the soon upcoming dedicated freight corridors.