GUWAHATI, Dec 21 � With an aim to further upgrade the maintenance of diesel locomotives in the North Eastern region and to ease the pressure faced by the New Guwahati Diesel Locomotive Shed, the Indian Railways is now coming up with two more such sheds in Assam, which will be located at Mariani and Lumding.
Senior engineering department officials of the Indian Railways told The Assam Tribune that work on both the new diesel locomotive sheds are expected to be completed in about two years.
�One shed is coming up at Lumding which will have a capacity to handle 100 diesel locomotives, while another is being built at Mariani for handling 50 locos. We expect operations at both places to start in about two years,� a senior official told this newspaper.
Currently, there is only one full-fledged Diesel Locomotive Shed in the seven North Eastern States. It is located at New Guwahati here.
The New Guwahati shed was commissioned in the early 1960s and was designed for 80 locomotives but now handles 120 engines. It is also the easternmost diesel shed in the country, used for maintenance of all type of locomotives including passenger, goods and shunting (used for attaching and detaching wagons).
�There will be around 500 personnel, including engineers and artisans, in both the upcoming sheds,� said the official.
While the New Guwahati shed only handles Alco locomotives, the Mariani and Lumding sheds will be able to handle the latest EMD type of locos as well.
The Alco locos have a horsepower of 2,600-3,000, while the state-of-the-art EMD locos are in the 4,000-4,500 horsepower range.
The EMD locos of the Maligaon-headquartered Northeast Frontier Railway, which also has jurisdiction over parts of West Bengal and Bihar, are currently maintained at the Siliguri shed.
It is also noteworthy that Indian Railways is also working with the IIT Guwahati to improve maintenance of diesel locomotives.