Electric loco shed celebrates 10 years of service

The first locomotive chugged in India in 1853. And since then, the Indian Railways had many milestones to reckon with, both in its reach of network and adapting to changing technology.

The steam loco shed at Lallaguda, established in 1893, no less is part of the 'chugged' Indian railway history.

Diesel replacing steam (coal) saw the loco shed closed in 1992. Various options for the right location of an electric loco shed finally weighed down to demolishing the old structure, and the Electric Loco Shed, Lallaguda (ELS LGD), now stands in its place and was commissioned on September 6, 1995.

"We are happy to celebrate ten years of completion of the electric loco shed. The loco shed caters to as many as 104 rail engines that include passenger trains as well as goods trains. It is one of the best maintained loco sheds in the country and not a single engine from the electric loco shed has met with accident of any sorts due to a defect in the locos since inception," said Vishnu Kant, senior divisional electrical engineer, South Central Railway, on a guided tour of the workshop for mediapersons.

The loco shed currently maintains about 65 per cent of mail or express and passenger trains, and 50 per cent of goods trains starting or passing through Lallaguda. Locos from Lallaguda run through the length and breadth of the country, including far off places like New Delhi, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur and Chennai.

The ELS LGD, which was started with a holding of 72 locos, now maintains 169 locos. "The additional 65 locos are of the Kazipet shed. A new electric loco shed is under construction and would be completed by March 2006," said Rajiv Kumar, chief electrical engineer (rolling stock).

On the performance of the shed, Kumar said, "Our maintenance has come down over the years. The maintenance cost per loco has steadily declined to Rs 12.24 lakh during 2004-05 from Rs 16.73 lakh in 1999-2000, and can be attributed to reduced replacement of worn-out parts as well as reduced frequency of maintenance."

"Previously, a loco that we used to call for maintenance, say every 30 days, is now called every 45 days," he said.

Till 2001, an electric loco was required to visit the shed for maintenance after approximately working 10,000 km but now the loco returns after running approximately 30,000 km, resulting in increased availability and reduced maintenance cost, he added.