BLW breaks its own record of locomotive production
BLW breaks its own record of locomotive production
Varanasi: The Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW) has broken its own record by producing 40 electric locomotives in a month. The Chairman and CEO of the Railway Board Vinod Kumar Yadav on Tuesday virtually flagged off the 40th locomotive manufactured by BLW in November.
Speaking on the occasion, Yadav said that with the turnout of the 40th 6,000 HP electric locomotive for the month of November 2020, the BLW has surpassed its own record of manufacturing 31 electric locomotives in a month (July 2020). This is a result of meticulous planning on shop floors for better space management and seamless material availability.
He said that in four years this production unit has completely repurposed its infrastructure to switch over from making diesel locomotives to electric locomotives. The staff and officers have risen to the challenge of re-skilling and reorganizing the shop floors, machines, jigs and fixtures and planning process for transition to electric locos. The culmination of this process is marked by the historic feat of turning out the highest electric locomotive count of 40 in a month, from a single assembly line, which is also equipped to assemble diesel locomotives for exports and non-railway customers. The shift of the production line from diesel to electric locomotives, at BLW, is in line with the Ministry of Railways’ multi-pronged strategy of lowering the fuel bill, reducing carbon footprint, reducing dependence on import of fuel and enhancing average speed and hauling capacity of trains.
He said that the BLW will strive for 100% implementation of HRMS module, which is a step towards enhancement of staff welfare by providing various HR facilities like viewing of service record, leave account, PF withdrawal etc. at fingertips. He also mentioned that BLW has many quality certifications in hand which clearly indicates its hard efforts in the field of quality as well. However, one should never get satisfied with its current quality level and keep on working to enhance it further. BLW should try to strive for ‘Zero Defect’ and become such a brand name in loco manufacturing that its locos never fail en-route and only come to shed for scheduled maintenance. This standard can be achieved by learning from current failures, carrying out root cause analysis, taking suitable corrective actions for checking future repetition of the fault.
The member (Traction and Rolling Stock), Rajesh Tiwari congratulated team BLW for receiving many quality certifications like ISO:9001, ISO14001, OHSAS 18001 etc.in a short period of time by its efforts and also for achieving ISO:50001 which is for energy management.
The BLW general manager Anjali Goyal said that this is BLW’s humble contribution to keeping the wheels of manufacturing running in the Indian economy, with determination to overcome the constraints imposed by the COVID 19 pandemic. This is also BLW’s new ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’ milestone. The electric locomotive production line has 98% indigenous materials input, supporting MSMEs and the domestic manufacturing sector in a large way. The annual procurement of BLW in 2020-21 is Rs 3,000 cr. A substantial share of material is procured from MSMEs. In 2019-20, purchases from MSMEs were nearly Rs 1,400 cr. The turnover of nearly Rs 4,000 cr per annum adds to the manufacturing GDP of the economy. The BLW is now in a unique position of leveraging its multipurpose infrastructure to produce multi gauge and multi traction rolling stock towards achieving the government’s visionary policy of Atma Nirbhar Bharat. The BLW is also working on a prestigious export order of 3,000 HP cape gauge diesel locomotives to Mozambique. This has been put on the fast track in November 2020. Under this order, for the first time a 12 Cylinder Crankcase is being manufactured in BLW.
