(LiveMint)
Two months after a run-in with US giant General Electric Co. (GE) over the manufacture of diesel locomotives, Indian Railways has decided to phase out diesel engines in the next five years and switch entirely to electric ones.
By phasing out diesel locomotives, the national transporter will save around Rs11,500 crore annually, railway minister Piyush Goyal said at a meeting of the executive committee of the industry lobby group Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci). “We have planned to switch all trains to electric-driven in the next five years,” Goyal said on Tuesday. “The diesel locomotives will be used for back-up purposes in the yards.”
The minister’s statement could raise renewed questions on GE’s Marhaura diesel locomotive project in Bihar, where the company is setting up a factory at an estimated cost of Rs2,052.58 crore, with limited equity contribution by the ministry of railways. Under the original plan, over a 10-year period, GE was to supply 1,000 diesel locomotives of 4,500 and 6,000 horsepower with high-level performance guarantees.
