Siemens Mobility handed over the first 9000 HP electric freight D9 locomotive for commercial operations to Indian Railways (IR) on Monday. Siemens also opened the D9 fleet’s first maintenance depot in Visakhapatnam under this project with IR.
IR had placed an order for 1200 locomotives to Siemens worth Euro 3 billion in January 2023. Commenting on this, Michael Peter, CEO, Siemens Mobility, said “the handover of the first D9 locomotives and the opening of the new maintenance depot in Visakhapatnam are major milestones in this landmark project and our long-term partnership with Indian Railways” .
The project is delivered under a lifecycle partnership model covering design, manufacturing, commissioning and 35 years of full-service maintenance.
Maintenance will be provided through a network of four depot locations – Visakhapatnam, Raipur, Kharagpur and Pune. Siemens Mobility will provide full service for the new D9 locomotive fleet, including spare parts and materials management, maintenance planning, as well as documentation and reporting.
The D9 locomotives are designed for freight operations across the network at speeds of up to 120 kmph. During normal operation, the locomotive with axle load of 22.5 tonnes shall haul loads of up to 5,800 tonnes on the defined gradients. With 9,000 hp, they are India’s most powerful six-axle electric freight locomotives.
They feature advanced digital systems such as Railigent X for predictive maintenance and data-driven performance optimization, and integrate enhanced safety for energy-efficient, high-reliability operations across the IR network.
Siemens Mobility will also use digital services, enabled by Railigent X, to support condition monitoring, predictive maintenance and data-driven performance optimization, helping to maximize fleet availability over the lifecycle.
