Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 3: Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW), an IRIS certified Locomotive Production Unit of Indian Railways manufactured 200 electric locomotives up to till December 2020, against 195 to end December 2019, following all COVID protocols.
This was revealed by General Manager (GM) BLW Anjali Goyal while addressing a press conference at BLW Officers’ Club. She said despite COVID-19 lock down in April 2020 and May 2020, when locomotive production was Nil in April and only 8 in May, BLW has manufactured 200 electric locomotives up to till December 2020, thus stepping up supply of electric locomotives, in pace with expansion in the electrification of Indian Railways’ network.
Goyal said this was also acknowledged by Chairman and CEO Railway Board, Vinod Kumar Yadav when he flagged off the 39th locomotive “Deepshakti” manufactured in the month of November 2020 in BLW Varanasi, on December 1. 40th electric locomotive “Akashdeep” was also rolled out along with “Deepshakti” in the same month, she added.
The GM said that BLW has completely repurposed its infrastructure to switchover from making diesel locomotives to electric locomotives. The staff and officers have risen to the challenge of re-skilling and reorganizing the shop floors, machines, jigs and fixtures and planning process for transition to electric locos.
“BLW’s electric locomotive production line has 98% indigenous materials input, supporting MSMEs and domestic manufacturing sector in a large way. The annual procurement of BLW in 2020-21 is Rs 3,000 cr. A substantial share of material is procured from MSMEs,” she said.
The turnover of nearly Rs 4,000 crore per annum adds to the manufacturing GDP of the economy, she said, adding, BLW is now in a unique position of leveraging its multipurpose infrastructure to produce multi gauge and multi traction rolling stock towards achieving the Government’s visionary policy of Atam Nirbhar Bharat.
Chief Public Relations Officer along with all the PHOD was present at the press conference.
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