Mumbai made locos to run at Himalaya's foothills

The locos are enabled with safety features such as Automatic Emergency Braking, Electronic Speedometer with recorder

After Kangra Valley, the Narrow Gauge railway made in Mumbai loco Parel Workshop are now on their way for hauling passenger and goods trains on the Kalka-Shimla Railway Section of Ambala Division of Northern Railway.

"The Kalka - Shimla Railway is a 2 ft 6 inch (762 mm) gauge railway that runs from Kalka at the foothills of Himalayas to Shimla in the hills of Himachal Pradesh. It runs through the Sub-Himalayan region and rises to a height of 1,400 meters in a route length of 97kms. This is the 5th locomotive out of the order placed for 12 Locomotives on Central Railways (CR) Parel Workshop. The workshop has already manufactured and dispatched four such locos since November 2019. This is the third such Loco manufactured during the lockdown period. The loco was manufactured while adhering to social distancing norms and limited resources due to the prevalent lockdown conditions," CR chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar said.

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These Locos are provided with dual cab to drive from either end with good visibility of track ahead and are equipped with cold start to enable their working in severe winter conditions in Northern India. The locos are also equipped with an 'on-demand cooling system' to cool the engine as per requirement while the air brakes are similar to regular locos and are enabled with safety features such as Automatic Emergency Braking, Vigilance Control Device and Electronic Speedometer with recorder.

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This cost of manufacturing these 12 locos as at about R36 crore. The Parel workshop was established in 1879 as a steam locomotive repair shop. Over the years it diversified into carrying out different activities, including diesel loco maintenance etc. In March 2007, the Parel workshop had sent Mumbai-made locomotives to a number of public bodies across the country, including Tata Steel, the Bokaro

Steel plant and the Neral-Matheran Railway.

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