New Siemens locomotives for Indian Railways

As part of its fleet renewal, Indian Railways will also start receiving locomotives from a 1,200-strong contract  signed with Siemens in January 2023. These have been designated EF9K, i. e. Electric Freight 9K horsepower (a traction power of 6,600 kW). The locomotives, designed for a 1,676 mm track-gauge and 25 kV 50 Hz, have a Co'Co' axle arrangement and a maximum speed of 120 km/h and will be capable of hauling trains weighing up to 4,500 t.

On 1 March 2025 the first locomotive was officially presented, namely EF9K-0002, but still without bogies. This took place at the new factory in Dahod (in the Midwest of India), for which the foundation stone was laid in 2022. The facility was completed in 2024 and the first locomotives were already being worked on during the autumn.

The contract, with a total value of around 3 billion EUR, represents the largest locomotive order in Siemens' history. It is a completely new family of locomotives (as yet unnamed), they have to cope with operating in extremely hot climates, which requires powerful cooling system.

They have pneumatically operated Type LX 3800 PN 035 pantographs of FAIVELEY TRANSPORT CZECH (part of Wabtec), for top speed of 160 km/h and with a very high lift. Its maximum is 3,750 mm (even more than at the Class WAG12B) and is important for locomotives running on the newly built DFCs (Dedicated Freight Corridors), where trains with two layers of containers are also transported. The DFC network is to cross the whole of India and will eventually have a total length of 8,325 km. The trains running here have weights of up to about 10,000 t and lengths of up to about 1.5 km, and are currently dominated by WAG12B two-section machines.

Deliveries of the EF9K locomotives are expected to last 11 years and the contract includes maintenance for 35 years, all to be carried out in cooperation with IR. For this purpose, new depots will be built in Pune, Raipur, Kharagpur and Vhishakhapatnam.