The Hindu Business Line : Gearing for super-fast progress

Plant and machinery worth Rs 16.4 crore sanctioned for 2008-09 will be procured expeditiously to facilitate production of a greater number of locomotives in the coming years.

MR V. SHANKAR, GENERAL MANAGER, CHITTARANJAN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS

Mohan Padmanabhan

Developing a product-specific vendor system with open architecture and thereby engaging productively with the engineering industry through selective outsourcing is perceived as the way forward for Chittaranjan Locomotive Works. CLW, which supports a total workforce of 12,852, has announced that it would manufacture 220 electric locos in 2008-09 and 250 in 2009-10. CLW’s production plan is geared to supply some 1,200 electric locos of the total requirement of 1,800 locos by Indian Railways (as envisaged in the Eleventh Plan).

Talking to Business Line in Chittaranjan recently, Mr V. Shankar, General Manager, CLW, clarified that while the current loco control systems were highly vendor-specific, the future plan was to develop broad-based 3-phase electric loco industry vendors through substantial technology upgradation.

Partner companies

Companies like Texmaco and Jessops were working with CLW in areas such as shell manufacturing for 3-phase locos. Pointing out that contracts for many vendors have been finalised, Mr Shankar said the small and medium players should gear up to supply materials in increased quantities. He particularly cited small players in Jamshedpur and Bhilai who have shown interest in manufacture of sheets and plates for locos.

Significantly, CLW has taken up a project to eliminate dependence on an old vendor-specific operating system by designing and adopting systems conforming to “published open standards”. Mr Shankar said development orders for both hardware and software have been placed and interaction with suppliers to finalise technical requirements was on.

On the Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) front, the GM said companies such as BHEL, Bombardier India and Nalco were working with CLW on designs cleared by the RDSO, Lucknow. ASICs are required for control electronics, power converters and auxiliary converters.

Work on development of additional infrastructure at CLW, as per sanctioned works, is expected to begin by the middle of this year. Sums of Rs 38 crore and Rs 83 crore have been sanctioned towards augmentation of existing plant and machinery for 2006-07 and 2007-08 respectively. Pointing out that the Board has sanctioned plant and machinery worth Rs 16.4 crore during 2008-09, he said efforts will be made to procure these expeditiously to facilitate production of a greater number of locomotives in the coming years.

Design, fabrication

He said various development projects have been taken up by CLW to further indigenise domestic production of state-of-the-art 3-phase electric locomotives (having larger haulage capacity and speed), and that this would augur well for the future of the engineering and design industries, particularly in employment genenration.

Putting the value of limited outsourcing during 2007-08 (mainly fabrication of such items as components and sub-assemblies) at Rs 24 crore, which constitutes a meagre 1.6 per cent of CLW’s total turnover of Rs 1,530 crore, Mr Shankar said the development programmes taken up were designed to encourage local small and medium industries to participate in the outsourcing initiative. On the types of locomotives currently under production at CLW, the GM particularly cited the 5,300 hp 25 kv AC 3-phase 4-axle broad gauge (8.6 metres) mainline electric loco for hauling passenger trains as the prima donna of the railway system.

He said this was the only loco in the Railways’ fleet which had the CRS sanction to run at a speed of 160 kmph, though it had a speed potential of 200 kmph. This loco is currently hauling the Jan Shatabdi train on the Delhi-Agra sector, running at 150 kmph.

Queried on the 3-phase locos under production at CLW, he singled out the WAG-96,000 hp 25 kv AC loco for hauling freight trains, with a speed potential of 100 kmph. The 3-phase locomotive, he clarified, operates on computer control. “The regenerative braking system pumps back energy into the grid during braking, resulting in energy saving to the extent of 15 per cent.”

Evolving requirement

Asked about 3-phase locos of new design, meant to meet the evolving traffic requirements, the GM said the 6000 hp variant of WAG-9 has been specifically designed to operate 24-26 coach trains (such as the Coromandel Express) of 130 kmph.

CLW is also setting a new benchmark in financial MIS in the Railways. Giving an overview of the new Oracle-based Financial ERP Solution programme being put in place soon at CLW, Mr Dipankar Lahiri, FA & CAO, said the application developed encompasses the CLW’s entire accounting activity.

He said, apart from the existing applications of payroll and batch-costing, the new package also has provision for handling bill passing activities up to cheque printing.

The main focus of the application, said to be a first in Indian Railways, according to him, was to have complete information of the expenditure incurred by CLW. The individual modules facilitate the distribution of this expenditure, cost-allocation wise.

Highlighting the work-flow with regard to production planning and control systems, he said the key benefit was that there would be no physical movement of papers from one office to another.

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