NTPC has placed an order for six electric locomotives on Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), for deployment at the power producer’s Lara supercritical project in Chhattisgarh.
A statement by BHEL said that the Central PSU engineering firm has achieved a major breakthrough with this order as it is the first ever in the country for industrial application. Typically, BHEL’s electrical locomotives are supplied to Indian Railways as rolling stock.
The order placed by NTPC is for six 6,000HP electric locomotives for material handling operations at Lara thermal power project site.
With this order, BHEL has expanded its offerings in its rolling stock business, driven by increasing the existing basket of products and services in new market segments, specifically for industries viz. power, steel, cement, etc., in addition to Indian Railways.
As the world continues to explore new ways of limiting carbon emissions in the transportation sector, BHEL’s efforts in offering eco-friendly electric locomotives for industry will provide a relatively cleaner and alternative option to diesel electric locomotives, the BHEL statement said.
The locomotives shall be manufactured at BHEL’s Jhansi facility and will be equipped with state-of-the-art IGBT-based propulsion equipment, developed and supplied by the company’s Bengaluru unit. The traction motors for the locomotives will be supplied from BHEL’s Bhopal plant.
So far, BHEL has supplied more than 450 nos. electric locomotives of various ratings to Indian Railways which are running successfully.
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NTPC’s Lara power project in Chhattisgarh currently has two supercritical power units of 800-mw, taking the total capacity to 1,600 mw. This represents Stage-1 of the project that was fully commissioned in July 2020. In subsequent stages, three more such units are scheduled for addition, taking the total capacity to 4,000 mw.
Featured photograph (source: NTPC) shows an overview of the Lara power project in Chhattisgarh.
