RITES Limited, a company under the Railway Ministry, will export working condition diesel locomotives for the first time. The first consignment will go to South Africa. RITES Chairman and Managing Director Rahul Mithal said that Indian Railways is now almost completely electrified. Therefore, it has been decided to export working condition diesel locomotives with residual life of more than 15 years to foreign countries.
The company has secured an export order for 18 working condition diesel locomotives from South Africa. Changes are being made in these according to the needs of South African Railways. Till now RITES has been exporting only new locomotives, but this is the first time that working condition locomotives are being exported.
Despite being Cape Gauge (1,067 mm) in South Africa and Broad Gauge (1,676 mm) in India, these locomotives will be fully suitable after necessary technical modifications.
Rahul Mithal said, the first working condition modified diesel locomotive will be supplied by the fourth quarter of the financial year 2025-26. We hope that seeing the quality, we will get such orders from neighboring countries of South Africa also.
