RITES steps up work at Railways’ traction factory in Vidisha

RITES, a central government enterprise has stepped up effort to construct the Traction Alternator Factory for Indian Railways at Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, officials said on Thursday, about the project built in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, and will help cut down imports.

“It will enable Indian Railways to manufacture traction alternators for high horsepower diesel 

locomotives in-house, which are presently being imported,” an official said.

The project was sanctioned in Works Programme of the Ministry of Railways at a cost of Rs 60 crore. 

“The planned capacity of the factory is for <g data-gr-id="24">manufacture</g> of 100 Traction Alternators and overhaul of 600 Traction Motors per annum. The Traction Alternators planned to be manufactured at TAF, Vidisha are highly complex machines and would be used in 4500 HP Diesel Electric locomotives,” he said.

<g data-gr-id="20">The foundation stone for the Traction Alternator Factory was laid by Suresh Prabhu</g>, Minister for Railways in the presence of Sushma Swaraj Minister of External Affairs, and Shivraj Singh Chauhan, CM of Madhya Pradesh. Several senior officers from the Indian Railways, RITES Ltd and the Madhya Pradesh government were present on the occasion.

“The Indian Railways need about 100 Traction Alternators motors in a year and most of these are being imported at present. Similarly, the requirement of Traction Motors overhaul for Indian Railways is about 600 per annum. This activity is presently being outsourced.