Aiming at opening a new chapter in ‘Make-in-India’ initiative along with ‘Make for World’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for a Rs 20,000 crore mega project for manufacturing of 9,000 HP electric locomotives at the production unit in Dahod in Gujarat on 20 April.

Situated at about 68 acres of land on Mumbai-Delhi main rail route, Dahod workshop, established in 1926 for periodic overhaul of steam locomotives, will be upgraded to electric locomotive manufacturing unit with infrastructural improvements.

According to Indian Railways, the ambitious project is expected to provide direct and indirect employment to over 10,000 people.

The bidding process is slated to commence shortly for inviting major rolling stock players to participate in the multi-crore project.

The proposed production unit is expected to manufacture 1,200 electric locos and each loco with 9,000 horsepower (HP) over the next few years.

Dahod unit will manufacture broad gauge electric locomotives for the railways and standard gauge electric locos for the export market, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

Locos would be produced with the use of green energy, an environment-friendly move keeping pace with the railways net zero mission.

High horsepower locos would improve haulage capacity and speed of trains which would result in decongesting the saturated tracks and reduce the logistic cost.

The project would help in upgrading the technical skills of existing manpower with supervision by technology partners.

The electric locos have been enhanced significantly to 573 per annum in the last eight years. During 2021-22, the railways created record induction of 1,110 electric locos.

The Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone of various projects of the state government worth around Rs 550 crore which include water supply related projects worth about Rs 300 crore, Dahod Smart City projects worth around Rs 175 crore and works related to Dudhimati river project.