Mundra Port Concludes Delivery and Dispatch of 50 U.S. Made GE Locomotives to Indian Railways

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) successfully concluded the import and dispatch of 50 General Electric Transportation (GE) locomotives from Mundra port for the Indian Railways with full customer satisfaction and ‘zero’ incident. All 50 locomotives were manufactured by GE Electromotive Division in the United States and imported at Mundra port for the Indian Railways, a first for Indian shopping and logistics. The final locomotive was handed over to the Indian Railways at the Roza Loco Shed (UP) on 23 November 2018. The commissioning of the locomotives was completed in the period of Oct.2017 to Nov.2018, which is a landmark record for the logistics and ports sector.

Mundra port has the unique distinction of handling consignments critical for development and defence of the nation. In a short span of time, the port has played an instrumental role in logistics of wagons for various Metro projects pan-India, mining dump truck of 240 MT capacity and heavy duty air-crane (helicopter). Sources say that the port is set to receive the first batch of Boeing Chinook helicopters which is purported to give a decisive edge to India’s defence forces in war like scenario and also during times of humanitarian crisis.

APSEZ is India’s largest private multi-port operator and a part of the Adani Group, an integrated infrastructure corporation. Since 1962, after the import of WDM2 ALCO locomotives for the Indian Railways, the current import of GE locomotives (WDG4 series 49002) is the biggest import consignment in India. The first GE locomotive was imported to Mundra and successfully handled by Adani Port on 10th Oct. 2017. The loco was dispatched from Mundra to the Roza Loco Shed on 11th Feb. 2018 and the 50th loco was dispatched on 23rd Nov. 2018 within 10 months. With the purpose of Dedicated Freight Cargo Corridor, the selling point for the port was available to facilitate the commissioning of locos. Also, the strategic location of port was a huge advantage.

Avinash Rai, Chief Operating Officer, APSEZ said, “Efficiency in logistical operations is given an utmost priority at Adani Ports. Therefore, while handling the logistical operations for the Indian Railways and GE, we made sure the transportation of cargo from the vessel to its destination is seamless and without any incident. This achievement by the team at Mundra takes our standards to another level in India and sets new benchmarks for us to cross. Our aim is to continue leveraging the strategic advantage of our ports along the entire coastline of India to create a vast network of inland logistics in the country. The idea is to give end to end logistics solutions to customers using our ports and create new records.”

Mundra Port is the second largest port in India in handling container cargo. In 2014 – 15, Mundra port handled 1.75 Million TEUs and has the installed terminal capacity to handle 2.3 Million TEUs p.a. Adani Ports operates two terminals at Mundra - Adani Mundra Container Terminal (AMCT), which started operations in 2007, and Adani International Container Terminal (AICTPL), which was operationalised in 2013. Jointly both terminals handle 26 services, connecting India to destinations across the world.