Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Railway Board clears Rs 9 cr plan to upgrade Ajni loco shed

NAGPUR: The Railway Board has approved a Rs 9 crore proposal to upgrade the electric loco shed at Ajni, taking its existing capacity of maintaining electric locomotives from 148 to 175. Upgradation of the shed would mean overhauling more passenger and freight trains, and solve the problem of trains being delayed or stranded for want of locos.

Talking to mediapersons on Saturday during a visit to the loco shed, senior divisional electric engineer (loco shed), Ajni, HM Sharma said the proposal had been approved in August. The actual expansion would be completed over the next four years, he said, including addition of new equipment, sections and staff training. The proposal also included additional staff. "Almost 30% of the paper work has been completed and the work is likely to start next year," Sharma said.

The Ajni loco shed was constructed under the railway electrification project and commissioned in 1990. It maintains 148 locomotives including 88 WAG-7 and 60 WAG-9 models. "The shed has achieved loco outage of more than 92% i.e. maintained 138 locos annually. Over 20% of the maintained locos are utilized in Central Railway while 80% in other zones," Sharma said.

Sharma said that with the innovative approach in the workshop and the improving reliability of electric engines, the loco shed is one of top ranking sheds across the Indian Railways network.

"The shed has secured ISO certification and the work is being performed as per the certification guidelines and standards. The shed has done remarkable work in the field of maintenance of electric locomotives and it has been rewarded the 'Best shed of Central Railway' award on several occasions," Sharma said.

He stressed that in times to come, when the number of trains increasing and revenue targets going up, the shed has an important role to play by way of further increasing the efficiency. "Presently, on an average the Ajni-based locomotives are running more than 12 lakh km per failure. By adopting better action plans and special techniques, the loco shed has achieved wheel life of locomotives at 74 months," Sharma claimed.


POSTED BY: PALLAVI SINGH
PGDM III SEM

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