Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) is an electric locomotive manufacturer based in India. The works are located at Chittaranjan in the Asansol Sadar subdivision of West Bengal, with an ancillary unit in

Dankuni Dankuni is a city and a municipality of Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is now part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). It is considered posh area in Hooghly. Geography Location Da ...

. The main unit is 32 km from Asansol and 237 km from Kolkata. CLW has stores and offices in Kolkata, as well as inspection cells in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bangalore. It is the largest locomotive manufacturer unit in the world, producing 431 locomotives in 2019–20.

History

In the late 1930s, a committee consisting of M/s Humphries and Shrinivasan was created to consider the economic possibilities of establishing locomotive manufacturing facilities in India. The initial project at Chandmari, east of

Kalyani Kalyani may refer to: Film and television * ''Kalyani'' (1940 film), a Hindi film * ''Kalyani'' (1952 film), a Tamil film * ''Kalyani'' (1971 film), a Kannada film * ''Kalyani'' (1979 film), a Telugu film * ''Kalyani'' (1983 film), an Oriya ...

in West Bengal, was found to be unsuitable due to the partition. A new survey led to the present site at Chittaranjan being established, which was approved by the railway board in 1947. A survey of the proposed area began on January 9, 1948; the rocky soil was an advantage in erecting structural foundations, and the undulating terrain solved the problem of drainage for the township. The Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) envisioned hydro-electric and thermal power stations in the area, assuring adequate power availability for the project. The project was launched as Loco Building Works in 1950 to produce 120 average-sized

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s. It also had the capacity to manufacture 50 spare boilers. Production of steam locomotives commenced on January 26, 1950. The first President of India, Rajendra Prasad, dedicated the first steam locomotive to the nation on 1 November 1950, and on the same day, the Loco Building Works was renamed as Chittaranjan Locomotive Works after Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das. The nearby Mihijam Station was also renamed as Chittaranjan.

Steel Foundry at Chittaranjan

The technical collaborators in the U.K. for setting up of a Steel Foundry at Chittaranjan to produce steel castings for railway track. The final Draft agreement has been drawn up and sent to Messrs. F. H. Lloyd & Co.. U.K., for acceptance.The production is expected to commence after the completion of construction and installation work which is estimated to take a period of about three years from the date of the signing of the Agreement. The estimated cost of this foundry is Rs. 2.8 crores, approximately. The terms of the agreement are that we shall pay a sum of £1 lakh to the company with which we are collaborating, they will be responsible for supplying all the designs, supervision, advice in procurement of machinery etc.; if it is purchased in England, they will be responsible for the inspection of the machinery; also generally, they are to help us in putting up the foundry and also to train up the necessary personnel. In the first instance, the installed capacity is going to be 6,000 tons for steel castings for locomotives, and about 1,000 tons for track, from for points and crossings, from austenitic steel castings, which are made of a very hard type of steel. It will be mainly producing heavy and medium size castings im our steam locomotives. In 1962-63, a steel foundry was set up to manufacture cast steel locomotive parts. Production of

diesel-hydraulic locomotives A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...

began in 1968. After manufacturing 2351 steam locomotives of 5 types and 842 diesel-hydraulic locomotives of 7 types, production of both of these classes was discontinued from 1950 to 1972 and 1968 to 1993, respectively. Electric locomotive production commenced in 1961. The first Prime Minister of India,

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

, commissioned the first 1500 V DC Locomotive named ''Lokmanya'' on 14 October 1961. The production of 25 kV AC DC locomotives commenced on 16 November 1963, with the WAG-1 series, a broad-gauge 25 kV A.C. freight locomotive with 2840 hp and a maximum speed of 80 km/h. The first WAG-1 locomotive was named ''Bidhan''. CLW gradually began upgrading their locomotives to produce 6000 hp and achieve 160 km/h, and also started building the 25 kV AC/1500 V DC, AC/DC WCAM-1 series for hauling mail/express trains on the

Western Railway Western Railway may refer to: * Western Railway (Austria) * Hanoverian Western Railway, Germany * Western Railway zone, on Indian Railways * Württemberg Western Railway, Germany See also * Westbahn (disambiguation) * Western Railroad (disambigua ...

. Additionally, production of DC traction motors and control equipment commenced in April 1967. CLW became the first manufacturer in India (as well as the second in Asia and fifth in the world) to manufacture a 3-phase GTO Thyristor-controlled electric locomotive. The first WAG-9 series locomotivethe first indigenous 6000 hp freight electric locomotivewas rolled out on 14 November 1988, and christened ''Navyug''.10 May 2000 ''Navodit'', the first passenger version of the WAP-5 series with a service speed of 160 km/h and the potential to reach 200 km/h, was manufactured; the project's highest-priority items are the development of material sourcing, indigenization, and cost reduction. CLW has in-house facilities for machining and assembly of wheelsets, fabrication, bogies, etc. The facilities include modern CNC machines, plasma cutting machines, and inert gas welding sets. The factory obtains its iron & steel from

SAIL A sail is a tensile structure—which is made from fabric or other membrane materials—that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may ...

, RINL and MDN, and sometimes from private steel plants like TATA, Jamshespur, and Jindal Steel. Hydroelectric power comes from

PGCIL Power Grid Corporation of India Limited is an Indian central public sector undertaking under the ownership of Ministry of Power, Government of India. It is engaged mainly in transmission of bulk power across different states of India. It is ...

and the DVC's Maithon dam. CLW's environment conservation efforts have been recognized by the World Environment Foundation, and was awarded the Golden Peacock Award for Environment Management 2006. CLW has fully complied with the provisions of the Industrial Safety Act, 1948 and was awarded the Safety Innovation Award in 2006 and 2009 by India's Institute of Engineers..

References

External links

Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW)
Company website {{Authority control Locomotive manufacturers of India Buildings and structures in Paschim Bardhaman district Economy of West Bengal 1950 establishments in West Bengal