The rail division of Siemens said on Monday that it had sealed the biggest locomotive order in its history from the government-owned Indian Railways. 

The deal, worth €3 billion (roughly $3.2 billion), is for 1,200 electric locomotives over a period of 11 years. 

The contract also includes maintenance and repair work for a 35-year period. 

The electric locomotives are to be used for freight transport. Generating 9,000 horsepower, they can pull up to 4,500 metric tons of freight at up to 120 kilometers per hour (roughly 75 miles per hour). 

Trains to be made in India 

Most of the work is to be done at Siemens' facilities in India, with the trains manufactured at a Siemens Mobility plant in the country.

Assembly would be carried out jointly with Indian Railways employees in the state of Gujarat, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi hails from, on the western coast. Siemens also said that cooperation was planned for maintenance operations going forward. 

Siemens has struck larger value contracts for rail projects abroad recently, but not for trains alone. A recent deal valued at around €8 billion with Egypt was for the construction of an electric rail network, as well as a fleet of various types of locomotives.

The engineering giant said that India had one of the largest and fastest-growing rail networks in the world.

"The country wants to almost double rail freight capacity," CEO Roland Busch said. 

 He said the order "will help achieve the country's ambitious goals of building the world's largest electrified rail network." 

msh/wmr (AFP, dpa, Reuters)