GE unit in UP to monitor locomotive ops
American conglomerate General Electric (GE) will unveil on Thursday its first maintenance shed, created on the design-build-operate model, at Roza in Uttar Pradesh, signalling a landmark in publicprivate partnership in the Indian Railways.
Spread over 160,000 square feet of railway land, the maintenance shed will have the infrastructure to monitor the operations of GE locomotives across the country real time. All locomotives in the fleet will be fitted with sensors comprising a set of sophisticated algorithms that diagnose and suggest maintenance actions, Nalin Jain, president and chief executive officer (international), GE Transportation, told Business Standard in an interview.
GE has tied up with Vodafone for providing the Global Positioning System (GPS) link between the maintenance shed and the locomotives. The second leg of the project is coming up at Marhowra in Bihar, from where locomotives will roll out in the second half of 2018. This unit will be modelled on the GE factory at Fort Worth in Texas.
“We will be ahead of the target of February 22, 2019. The construction of the factory is in full swing. It has been split into two bays — high and low — with a moving production line. The loco will move from one end to the other. And from the low bay, different parts will come and sit on it,” said Jain.
The Railways had ordered GE to supply 1,000 fuel-efficient Evolution series locomotives in November 2015. The $2.5-billion contract was for 11 years. The deal, involving an investment of $200 million by GE, is expected to create at least 6,000 direct and indirect jobs, with 30 per cent of the workforce being women. Besides the maintenance and monitoring work, Roza has a training institute with a simulator and hostel for railway drivers and maintenance staff.
The company has developed a vendor network and forged tie-ups with companies like Texmaco, air-conditioner manufacturer Lloyd, and SFO Technologies. “Being an iconic Indian project with a 70 per cent localisation commitment, we have tied up with around 60 suppliers already. Moreover, this will be the first loco in India meeting international energy compliance norms with a UIC-1 European standard rating,” said Jain.