New Delhi

The procurement of 200 high-horse power electric locomotives for Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) is stuck at the negotiation stage as the railways has differed with a Japanese consortium on the pricing front.

The railways is contemplating procuring 200 electric locomotives of 9000 horse power (HP) capacity each for WDFC and as per the loan condition, these have to be bought from Japan.

“We are in negotiation with the Japanese consortium for for the procurement of 200 electric locomotives. The prices quoted by the Japanese companies are on higher side which we are not agreeing to,” said a senior Railway Ministry official.

The loco contract is estimated to be about Rs 4500 crore and the first batch of locomotives is expcted to arrive after two years of the awarding of the contract.

While WDFC is being entirely funded by JICA loan, Eastern DFC is part-funded by the World Bank.

The railways was supposed to award the contracts for loco procurement by December end, last year but the pricing issue has delayed it further.

“We are hopeful that the issue will be resolved shortly and the contracts will be awarded accordingly,” he said.

The Japanese consortium comprising five companies including Kawasaki, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electric and Mitsubishi Corporate had submitted their bids in October last year for procurement of the 9000 HP locomotives for WDFC.

The sophisticated locomotives with IGBT technology are being procured with Japanese assistance.

While 40 will be imported from Japan as per the arrangement, 60 will be assembled at the railways’ Dankuni facility and the rest 100 will be manufactured at Dankuni.

The high-power locomotives will be used to haul double-stack containers on WDFC.

WDFC will cover around 1,534 kms from Dadri to Mumbai, passing through Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The Eastern corridor will have a length of 1,839 kms, connecting Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni in West Bengal, while passing through Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

PTI