Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) built “NAVKIRAN”, first WAP-7 electric loco of 6000HP bearing serial no 30201was flagged off from CLW on May 10, 2000, exactly 20 yrs back for the service to Indian Railways and the performance of this loco is quite very encouraging.
With change of electric traction technology world over, the GTO based technology which was used initially was later changed and upgraded to latest Insulated Gate Bi Polar transistor (IGBT ) based converter technology which is more energy efficient world over. Recently, Hotel load technology was introduced and this loco is presently hauling prestigious Rajdhani & Shatabdi express trains over IR. With further improvements, this WAP-7 HS loco has successfully passed the trial run at 180kmph and clearance was given to run at 160kmph over IR. CLW is also working for upgrading the existing 6000HP loco of WAP-7 series to 9000HP and the work in going on.
It is to mention here that CLW got certification from LIMCA BOOK OF RECORDS for creating WORLD RECORD by producing 402 locos in FY 2018-19 and in the FY 2019-20, CLW surpassed its own record by producing 431 locomotives.