Integral Coach Factory

Integral Coach Factory (ICF) is a manufacturer of rail coaches located in Perambur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It was established in 1955 and is owned and operated by the Indian Railways. It is located in Perambur, in the suburbs of Chennai. ICF is one of the five rake production units of the Indian Railways, the other four being the Modern Coach Factory at Raebareli, Rail Coach Factory at Kapurthala, Marathwada Rail Coach Factory at Latur and Rail Coach Naveenikaran Karkhana at Sonipat.[1]

Integral Coach Factory
TypeGovernment Factory
IndustryRail transport
Founded2 October 1955 (1955-10-02)
HeadquartersChennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Area served
Asia-Pacific
Africa
Key people
A. K. Agarwal, IRSME
(General Manager)
Products
Production output
3,262 coaches (2018–19)
Number of employees
11,300 (2018)
ParentIndian Railways
Websiteicf.indianrailways.gov.in

The coach factory primarily manufactures rolling stock for Indian Railways but also exports railway coaches to other countries. ICF set a new record producing 2,503 coaches in the fiscal year 2017–18. It became the world's largest railway coach manufacturer, rolling out 3,262 coaches in the fiscal year 2018–19, up from 1,437 coaches in 2009–10,[2] expecting to produce 4,000 units in the fiscal year 2019–20.[3]

A premier production unit of the Indian railways, the ICF manufactures a range of coaches, including Linke-Hofmann-Busch (LHB) ones, in addition to self-propelled train sets (SPTs) such as electrical multiple units (EMU).[4]

Introduction

In 1948, the Government of India decided that a separate Railway Coach Building Works should be established with a view to attain self-sufficiency in coaches for Indian Railways. A technical Aid Agreement was concluded on 28 May 1949 with the Swiss Car and Elevator Manufacturing Corporation Ltd. of Switzerland, who have been pioneers in the field of light-weight coach building for obtaining the necessary technical assistance in the establishment of a factory in India for building the coaches. A supplemental agreement was signed on 27 June 1953. After a comprehensive survey of several alternative sites for locating the factory, the vacant Railway land to the west of the Loco Repair Shops of the Southern Railway at Perambur was chosen as the final site in June 1951. The site is ideally situated with rail connections to the factory readily available and a nearby suburban railway station to bring workmen to the factory.

History
A 2019 stamp of Integral Coach Factory and their flagship Train 18, which was later inducted into the Vande Bharat Express.

The Integral Coach Factory is one of the earliest production units of independent India. It was initiated by Chief Minister K. Kamaraj and inaugurated by the first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru on 2 October 1955. Later the Furnishing Division was inaugurated on 2 October 1962 and the production of fully furnished coaches steadily increased over the years. The total estimated cost of the factory was ₹ 74.7 million. In full production, about 350 broad-gauge coaches per annum are produced.[5] The number of persons sent to Switzerland from the Integral Coach Factory for training in technical jobs in 1954 and 1955 was 64.[6]

Manufacturing
The then Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu, flagging off the 50,000th coach manufactured by Integral Coach Factory through video-conference.

The ICF consists of two main divisions, namely, shell division and furnishing division. The shell division manufactures the skeleton of the rail coach, while the furnishing division is concerned with the coach interiors and amenities. An ancillary unit to the ICF is being built in Haldia, West Bengal for furnishing diesel multiple units.[7] ICF manufactures more than 170 varieties of coaches including the Kolkata Metro rakes for BHEL, NGEF, Medha, first and second class coaches, pantry and kitchen cars, luggage and brake vans, self-propelled coaches, electric (EMU), diesel (DMU) and mainline electric multiple unit (MEMU), metro coaches and diesel-electric tower cars, accident relief medical vans (ARMV), inspection cars (RA), fuel test cars, track recording cars and luxury coaches. The plant employs about 11,095 people and manufactures about 2000 coaches per year. ICF churned out 1,503 coaches in 2010[8] and in August 2011, ICF was sanctioned a project for manufacturing stainless steel shells and high-speed bogies and an increase in capacity from 1,500 to 1,700 coaches.[8] In 2013–14, it built 25 LHB coach, 248 air-conditioned and 1185 non-AC coaches.[9] It plans to increase its manufacturing capacity of LHB coach. It has set a target to manufacture 300 LHB coach in 2014–15 and reach a capacity of 1000 LHB coach by 2016–17. Now, the conventional type of coaches of ICF design has been completely dispensed with and ICF is manufacturing all steel all welded modern LHB coach fully. ICF has turned out a record outturn of 2277 coaches during the year 2016–17 consisting of more than 50 variants involving high technological inputs, meticulous planning and execution.[10] In 2019, ICF produced 4300 coaches. A total of 60,000 coaches had been produced till end of December 2019, by ICF since its inception. This makes ICF the largest rail coach manufacturer in the world. On an average, the ICF turns out about 10 coaches of various types in a single day.[11]

Utkrisht coaches of Chennai–Kollam Express, manufactured by ICF, in Kollam Junction railway station

ICF has also turned out the first semi high speed train sets of India, the Train 18, later christened as Vande Bharat Express, the first of which was flagged off by the Prime Minister of India on 15 February 2019 runs between New Delhi Railway Station and Varanasi Junction Railway Station.[12]

Exports

ICF also exports rail cars to various countries. It exported its first 47 bogies to Thailand in 1967 and has since exported 361 bogies and 447 coaches to over 13 Afro-Asian countries. The last order from Sri Lanka for supplying 20 rakes of six coach DEMUs earned ICF ₹126 crore.[13]

Continent Country Ref
Africa  Angola [14]
 Mozambique [14]
 Nigeria [14]
 Tanzania [14]
 Uganda [14]
 Zambia [15]
Asia  Bangladesh [14]
 Myanmar [14]
   Nepal [16]
 Philippines [14]
 Sri Lanka [14]
 Taiwan [14]
 Thailand [14]
 Vietnam [14]

Other

A Regional Railway Museum is situated in the factory premises. It has a collection of nascent models of trains and models endemic to the Indian Railways. About 59.1 million units of electricity had been generated through the windmills installed by ICF in Tirunelveli district in 2011 which met 80 percent of the plant's electrical energy requirements.[17][18][19]

Controversies

The air-conditioned train-sets manufactured by ICF for Kolkata Metro allegedly broke down causing disruption of services. According to newspaper reports, the air-conditioned rakes were sent to Kolkata without conducting dry runs because the ICF did not have third-rail testing facilities.[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]

See also

References
  1. Kumar, S. Vijay (15 July 2019). "Railways may buy readymade trains from private players". The Hindu. Chennai: Kasturi & Sons. p. 1. Archived from the original on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  2. Kumar, S. Vijay (15 July 2019). "AIRF opposes move to purchase trains". The Hindu. Chennai: Kasturi & Sons. p. 5. Archived from the original on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  3. Narasimhan, T E (21 May 2019). "After Train 18, ICF to develop Train 19, sleeper version of Train 18". Business Standard. Chennai: Express Publications. Archived from the original on 23 May 2019. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  4. Parthasarathy, Venkatesan (2 August 2017). "Padi-Anna Nagar line to turn ICF test track". The New Indian Express. Chennai: Express Publications. Archived from the original on 14 July 2018. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
  5. https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/55733/1/lsd_01_06_23-03-1954.pdf Archived 7 April 2020 at the Wayback Machine page 4
  6. https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/56200/1/lsd_01_12_06-04-1956.pdf Archived 3 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine page 31
  7. "Railways' Haldia factory phase I may be commissioned by Oct/Nov". The Hindu. 2 February 2012. Archived from the original on 16 August 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  8. "ICF to set up a stainless steel coaches manufacturing plant". Archived from the original on 5 April 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2011.
  9. "ICF produces record 1,622 coaches". Times of India. Archived from the original on 3 March 2017. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  10. "Indian government approves Kolar coach factory". 12 March 2014. Archived from the original on 20 November 2016. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  11. "ICF surpasses production target, rolls out 2,500th coach". The Hindu. Chennai: Kasturi & Sons. 1 April 2018. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  12. "India's fastest to be called Vande Bharat Express". Indian Express. Archived from the original on 28 January 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  13. "How Indian Railways can lead the charge towards Atmanirbhar Bharat". The Financial Express. 25 August 2020. Archived from the original on 30 April 2021. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  14. "65-year-old ICF of Indian Railway exported 650 rail coaches in last few years to 14 countries". The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 30 April 2023. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  15. "Chugging through TN's Integral Coach Factory, India's oldest train-making facility". The News Minute. 18 May 2018. Archived from the original on 30 April 2023. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  16. "Janakpur-Jayanagar rail service to resume operations by March". kathmandupost.com. Archived from the original on 30 April 2023. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  17. "Coach factory to use Rs 250 cr to upgrade bogies". Business Standard. 27 January 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  18. "Surplus from ICF windmills to power TNEB grid soon". The Times of India. 23 February 2010. Archived from the original on 7 July 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  19. "Integral Coach Factory installs seven windmills". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 10 April 2009. Archived from the original on 7 September 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  20. (Jayanta) 18 September 2011, 03.51am IST (18 September 2011). "Snag disrupts Metro services develops snag, commuters stranded". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 15 July 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  21. "Snag disrupts Metro services". The Times of India. TNN. 9 August 2011. Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  22. "Snag hits Metro on Panchami day". The Times of India. TNN. 2 October 2011. Archived from the original on 14 November 2011. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  23. Mandal, Sanjay (31 October 2011). "AC Rakes Throw Metro off Track". Telegraphindia.com. Archived from the original on 3 February 2013. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  24. Gupta, Jayanta (25 June 2011). "Metro AC Rakes May Break Down during Rains". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 8 July 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  25. "Metro AC rake a real bother". Archived from the original on 22 February 2013. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
  26. Our Special Correspondent (17 September 2011). "Snag in AC Metro Rake". Telegraphindia.com. Archived from the original on 14 September 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  27. "2 days in a row, AC rake snags". Telegraphindia.com. 18 September 2011. Archived from the original on 13 September 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  28. "After technical snags developed in an AC rake metro train services were disrupted this morning. Trains could not run between Girish Park and Dumdum. They ran only from Girish Park to New Garia". The Times of India. 20 September 2011. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  29. "AC rakes throw Metro". Yahoo News India. 31 October 2011. Archived from the original on 19 May 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2012.

Further reading

13.09832°N 80.20844°E / 13.09832; 80.20844

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.