Indian Railways operates India's railway system and comes under the purview of the Ministry of Railways of Government of India. As of 2023, it maintains over 108,706 km (67,547 mi) of tracks and operates over 13,000 trains daily with a fleet of 14,800 locomotives. The railways primarily operates a fleet of electric and diesel locomotives along with a few compressed natural gas (CNG) locomotives. Steam locomotives are operated on mountain railways and on heritage trains.

The Indian locomotive class WAP-1 is a class of 25 kV AC electric locomotives that was developed in 1980 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works for Indian Railways. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), AC Current (A), Passenger traffic (P) locomotive, 1st generation (1). They entered service in late 1981. A total of 65 WAP-1 were built at CLW between 1980 and 1996, which made them the most numerous class of mainline electric passenger locomotive until its successor, the WAP-4.