Diesel Locomotive Factory, Marhowrah


The Diesel Locomotive Factory, Marhowrah is a joint venture of GE Global Sourcing India Pvt. Limited of the US with Indian Railways for the production of 1000 high-power freight locomotives over a period of 10 years designed to run on Indian railway tracks. This factory started manufacturing the locomotives from September 2018.
The company is also setting-up two maintenance depots at Gandhidham in Gujarat and Roza in Uttar Pradesh.

Overview

During Sep 2013, the Ministry of Railways had received bids from six global firms: Siemens, Alstom, Bombardier, General Electric, CSR Corp and CNR Corp. However, Indian Railways rejected the bid of both Chinese firms for the two giant manufacturing projects in Bihar.
In January 2014, the Union Cabinet gave its approval for setting up Electric Locomotive Factory in Madhepura and Diesel Locomotive Factory in Marhowra at an approximate cost of and respectively.
On November 9, 2015, the Ministry of Railways awarded the contracts for Madhepura project and Marhaura project to Alstom and General Electric respectively in a collective amount of US $6 billion. This multi crore rupees deal was seen as the country's first FDI in the railway sector.
General Electric’s first diesel locomotive arrived in India on October 11, 2017 from the US.

Location

The factory is located at Marhaura, a town and an administrative sub-divisional area in Saran district in the Indian state of Bihar. Marhowrah is 81 km north of state capital Patna. Chhapra is the nearest railway station approximately 18 km from this factory.

Financial Assets

As a joint venture company, both Indian Railways and General Electric are set to invest collectively a huge amount of US $2.5 billion for DLF. Indian Railways will hold 26% equity in JV company subject to a maximum of. The estimated cost of 1000 locomotives will be around. General Electric will maintain the locomotives for 13 years, after which the Indian Railways will take over maintenance.

Products

There will be two types of diesel electric locos – 700 WDG 4G locos of 4,500 horsepower and 300 WDG 6 locos of 6,000 HP.
  1. WDG 4G 4500 hp, Co-Co, Broad Gauge, Evolution Series freight locomotive, 3-phase technology and IGBT technology. The GE designation of locomotive is ES 43ACmi. Weight 137.89 Tons. Axle Loading 22.97 Tons per Axle. Starting Traction Effort 544 KN, Continuous Traction Effort 405 KN. Maximum Speed 100 kmph. Engine GEVO-12, Emission Standard Compliant.
  2. WDG 6G : 6000 hp, Co-Co, Broad Gauge, Evolution Series freight locomotive, 3-phase technology and IGBT technology. The GE designation of locomotive is ES 58ACi. Weight 144.64 Tons. Axle Loading 24.1 Tons per Axle. Starting Traction Effort 570 KN, Continuous Traction Effort 420 KN. Maximum Speed 100 kmph. Engine GEVO-12, UIC 1 Emission Standard Compliant.