The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) on Friday launched its first electric passenger locomotive in Siliguri.

Surendra Kumar, the divisional railway manager of the NFR’s Katihar division, flagged off the electric loco at the diesel loco shed of Siliguri Junction.

“We are working for infrastructural development and 100 per cent electrification of the railway. As a part of the plan, electric locos for passenger services are introduced in all the railway zones. This is for the first time an electric passenger locomotive has been introduced in the NFR zone,” Kumar said.

The locomotive was built at Banaras Locomotive Works of Indian Railways. A sum of Rs 11.5 crore was spent on the electric engine.

As of now, the NFR has 13 electric locos which are used to haul goods trains.

“Several long-distance passenger trains in the NFR zone are being hauled by electric locos. But those are of other railway zones. In the NFR, this is the first electric loco,” said a source.

The DRM said that initially, they would use the loco to run passenger trains in shorter routes like Siliguri-New Jalpaiguri-Jalpaiguri and Siliguri-Malda.

“Once we get the performance report of the new engine, we will introduce electric locos in other trains that originate from this division,” the official said.

Along with the new electric loco, the NFR also has 212 diesel locos.

Those are maintained at the loco shed in Siliguri Junction.

An official of the NFR said that during the past year, they converted 40 long-distance passenger trains with LHB (Linke Hofmann Busch) coaches. Earlier, these trains used to run with ICF (Integral Coach Factory) coaches.

At the interim Union budget of 2024-25 tabled in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, the Centre allocated Rs 10,369 crore for the NFR, said railway sources.

“Work like laying new lines and doubling tracks, renewal of tracks, traffic facilities, road safety, bridge, signaling, workshop modernisation and development of customer amenities will be carried out with this corpus,” said an official.

Toy train tracks

The DRM said they had initiated the maintenance of tracks of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway’s toy train service and preventive measures to avoid derailments.

“We have inspected the DHR tracks and identified spots where derailments occur frequently. Necessary preventive measures have been taken which have also reduced such incidents. A proposal for renewal of tracks has been sent to the senior authorities. We are waiting for approval,” he said.