About PLW Patiala

PLW Patiala is a fully owned Production Unit of Indian Railways, which was setup in October 1981 as “Diesel Component Works” (DCW), to meet the ever-increasing demand of high precision maintenance spares of ALCo diesel locomotives. It is located at the heritage city of Patiala and is the pride of Punjab. With 3000+ employees, the unit sprawls over 557 acres of land along-with its integrated township.

After successfully meeting this objective under Phase-I of the project, another major activity of Mid-life rebuilding (MLR) of ALCo locos was introduced in 1989-90 under Phase-II. During MLR, the 2600 HP locomotives were upgraded to 3100/3300 HP locos, besides applying other retro-upgrades like AC-DC transmission, improved fuel efficiency and reduced periodicity of maintenance etc.  With the change in its core activities, the unit was rechristened as “Diesel Loco Modernization Works (DMW)” in 2003.

From the year 2010-11, DMW/Patiala started manufacturing new ALCo locomotives to meet the requirement of Indian Railways besides executing some orders from Non-Railway Customers. Till date, a total of 2298 old ALCo locomotives have been rebuilt and 227 new ALCo locomotives have been manufactured by DMW.

As the Indian Railways embarked on the path of complete electrification of all its routes, DMW discontinued the manufacturing and MLR activities of diesel locomotives and transformed itself to a new electric loco manufacturing unit. The first 6000HP IGBT based 3-Phase WAP7 electric loco was turned out from DMW in Feb’18 and it’s series production commenced from 2018-19. Similarly, DMW took up manufacturing of new 8-Wheeler Diesel Electric Tower Cars with underslung engines (DETC/US) to support the accelerated electrification of Indian Railways. The first DETC was turned out in Dec’18 and it’s series production commenced from 2019-20.

As per changing requirements of traffic, DMW also introduced manufacturing of WAG9HC freight locos from Mar’21. Again, due to these major changes in its product profile, it has been renamed as Patiala Locomotive Works (PLW) on 28.01.2022, giving it a full-fledged status of a Production Unit of Indian Railways.

By the end of FY 2022-23, PLW has manufactured a total of 250 WAP7 locos, 261 WAG9HC locos and 262 DETCs including 21DETCs for Non-Railway Customers.

In order to support maintenance activities of locomotives, PLW manufactures and supplies Motorized Bogies and Motorized Wheel Sets of both diesel and electric locos as unit exchange spares to Loco Sheds. PLW also has a dedicated Traction Motor Shop, which undertakes manufacturing as well as rehab of all kinds of Traction Machines used by Indian Railways on both diesel and electric locomotives.

The unit also boasts of its Green credentials, as it meets about 1/3rd of its energy needs from the 2.15 MWp Rooftop Solar Photo Voltaic Power Plant installed on its various production shops. Further expansion of 50 KWp is in pipeline.

With its diverse product portfolio, it is a unique Production Unit of Indian Railways, which can meet any kind of rolling stock demand with high quality standards.