South Central Railway General Manager Shri Gajanan Mallya today flagged off the 100th WAP-7 class loco to be homed at the Lallaguda Electric Locomotive Shed (ELS) in a small ceremony conducted at the shed.
The loco, numbered 37085, has been named ‘Shatashv‘, Sanskrit for ‘Hundredth Horse‘. It has been manufactured at the Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) at Varanasi.
Apart from the GM, the Principal Chief Electrical Engineer/SCR – Shri Aniruddha Phadke, Chief Electrical Locomotive Engineer/SCR – Shri Gopinath Mallya and Senior Divisional Electrical Engineer/Traction Rolling Stock /LGD – Shri T Nagaraju were present on the occasion.
The WAP-7 is a three phase electric locomotive, the most powerful passenger loco on the Indian Railways rated for a maximum speed of 140kmph. There are about 680 such locos on the Indian Railways’ fleet.
The Lallaguda Electric Loco Shed was established in September 1995 with an installed capacity of 100 locos. However, today it holds about 235 locos of the WAP-4, WAP-7 & WAG-9 classes.
Apart from the staff and officials, quite a few railfans were present on the occasion.