The rail division of Siemens mentioned on Monday that it had sealed the largest locomotive order in its historical past from the government-owned Indian Railways. 

The deal, value €3 billion (roughly $3.2 billion), is for 1,200 electrical locomotives over a interval of 11 years. 

The contract additionally contains upkeep and restore work for a 35-year interval. 

The electrical locomotives are for use for freight transport. Generating 9,000 horsepower, they will pull as much as 4,500 metric tons of freight at as much as 120 kilometers per hour (roughly 75 miles per hour). 

Trains to be made in India 

Most of the work is to be accomplished at Siemens’ services in India, with the trains manufactured at a Siemens Mobility plant within the nation.

Assembly could be carried out collectively with Indian Railways staff within the state of Gujarat, the place Prime Minister Narendra Modi hails from, on the western coast. Siemens additionally mentioned that cooperation was deliberate for upkeep operations going ahead. 

Siemens has struck bigger worth contracts for rail tasks overseas lately, however not for trains alone. A recent deal valued at around €8 billion with Egypt was for the development of an electrical rail community, in addition to a fleet of assorted varieties of locomotives.

The engineering large mentioned that India had one of many largest and fastest-growing rail networks on the planet.

“The country wants to almost double rail freight capacity,” CEO Roland Busch mentioned. 

 He mentioned the order “will help achieve the country’s ambitious goals of building the world’s largest electrified rail network.” 

msh/wmr (AFP, dpa, Reuters)