Siemens hands over first locomotives to Indian Railways for commercial operations
posted on 4th May 2026 13:59
Siemens Mobility officially handed over the first of 1,200 electric freight locomotives for commercial operations under its 3 billion EUR project with Indian Railways and jointly opened the fleet’s first maintenance depot in Visakhapatnam. The manufacturer had received the order in January 2023, marking the single largest locomotive order in the company’s history and single largest order in the history of Siemens India.
The Class D9 locomotives are Indian Railways’ first rolling stock successfully tested to the European standard EN 14363 and are designed for freight operations across the network at speeds of up to 120 km/h. 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 (traction power of 6,600 kW), they are India’s most powerful six-axle electric freight locomotives. They also feature advanced digital systems such as Railigent X for predictive maintenance and data-driven performance optimization.
The project is delivered under a lifecycle partnership model covering design, manufacturing, commissioning and 35 years of full-service maintenance. The latter will be provided through a network of four depot locations – Visakhapatnam, Raipur, Kharagpur and Pune. Siemens Mobility will also provide spare parts and materials management, maintenance planning, as well as documentation and reporting.
India has one of the world’s largest rail transport and logistics networks used daily by 24 million passengers on more than 22,000 trains. Additionally, the Government of India plans to increase the share of railways for freight transport to 40 - 45 % from the current approximately 27 %. India is one of the few countries in the world with an almost fully electrified rail network.
