Banaras Locomotive Works

Banaras Locomotive Works, usually shortened to BLW, is a state-owned production unit of Indian Railways, based in Varanasi in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It builds railway locomotives for the national network that owns it, so it is a public manufacturing works rather than a firm competing for private customers. The works was known for most of its life as Diesel Locomotive Works, or DLW, and took its present name in 2020, when it was renamed. It was founded in 1956, and it began as a builder of diesel locomotives; its current listed products are electric locomotives. The Banaras name is a good example of how a long established industrial site can keep its plant, workforce and function while changing its title, and readers tracing older records should look for both names.