Indian Railways (IR) has asked its electric locomotive production unit, Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW), to speed up production of locomotive engines to meet the annual target. CLW has managed to produce only 122 locos till November 2009 as against a target of 230 engines this year.

The number is even lower than November’s target of 153 locos. A railway ministry official said failure to meet production targets would have an adverse impact on overall freight loading. “They (CLW) have been strictly asked to pull up their performance in the remaining months. CLW shall gear up to increase the out turn of electric locos including the production of three-phase locos, which is critically required for meeting freight loading targets,” a ministry official, who did not wish to be named, said.

Tardy turnout of the locos by CLW has come at a time when the Indian Railways has actually jacked up the cargo loading targets to 900 million as against 882 million targets initially set in the railway budget presented by railways minister Mamta Banerjee in July 2009.

Three-phase AC locos being built by the CLW are based on new technology as against the earlier generation of locos based on diesel-electrics and electrics. The railways had a plan to manufacture 75 such locos at CLW this year. However, only 30 locos have been tuned out till now.

The railways have called for immediate action to enhance the out turn of three-phase locos. The CLW officials have been asked to outsource shells and other assemblies of engines for other units and order raw material for the next two-three years in advance.

“We (railways) want to expedite the entire production process. We also need to finish the work that has been already sanctioned,” the official said. The electric locomotive unit, located near the West Bengal-Jharkhand border, had manufactured 220 locos, including 54 three-phase high horse power locos in 2008. The railways have also proposed to set up an electric locomotive assembly and ancillary unit at Dankuni, West Bengal.

The new unit would supply a major portion on CLW’s assemblies such as shells, side-walls, roofs for manufacturing the locos. The railway board wants to modernise CLW infrastructure to include only those items which are required for capacity enhancement.