Integral Coach Factory

Location in Chennai

Integral Coach Factory (ICF) is the only manufacturer of rail coaches located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It was established in 1952, is owned and operated by the Indian Railways. The coach factory primarily manufactures cars for Indian Railways but also exports railway coaches to other countries.

History

Integral coach factory was established in 1952 and started production on 2 October 1955. The first items produced were third class shells for Southern Railway.

Manufacturing

The Integral Coach Factory consists of two main divisions - 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 Integral Coach Factory is being built in Haldia, West Bengal for furnishing diesel multiple units.[1] ICF manufactures more than 170 varieties of coach including first and second class coaches, pantry and kitchen cars, luggage and brake vans, self-propelled coaches, electric (EMU), diesel (DMU) and mainline electric multiple units (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 13,000 people and manufactures about 1500 coaches per year. ICF churned out 1,503 coaches in 2010[2] 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.[2] In 2013-14, it built 25 LHB Coaches, 248 air-conditioned and 1185 non-ac coaches.[3] It plans to increase its manufacturing capacity of LHB coaches. It has set a target to manufacture 300 LHB coaches in 2014-15 and reach a capacity of 1000 LHB coaches by 2016-17.[4] A total of 50,000 coaches had been produced till 18 Aug 2015 by ICF since its inception.

Exports

ICF also exports rail cars to other countries including Thailand, Burma, Taiwan, Zambia, Philippines, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, Nigeria, Mozambique, Bangladesh, Angola and Sri Lanka.

Others

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.[5][6][7]

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 have been sent to Kolkata without conducting dry runs because the Integral Coach Factory does not have third rail testing facilities.[8][9][10][11][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Railways' Haldia factory phase I may be commissioned by Oct/Nov". The Hindu. Feb 2, 2012. Retrieved February 19, 2012.
  2. 1 2 ICF to set up a stainless steel coaches manufacturing plant
  3. ↑ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/ICF-produces-record-1622-coaches/articleshow/33089541.cms
  4. ↑ http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/asia/indian-government-approves-kolar-coach-factory.html?channel=529
  5. ↑ "Coach factory to use Rs 250 cr to upgrade bogies". Business Standard. Jan 27, 2012. Retrieved February 19, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Surplus from ICF windmills to power TNEB grid soon". The Times of India. Feb 23, 2010. Retrieved February 19, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Integral Coach Factory installs seven windmills". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Apr 10, 2009. Retrieved February 19, 2012.
  8. ↑ (Jayanta) Sep 18, 2011, 03.51am IST (2011-09-18). "Snag disrupts Metro services develops snag, commuters stranded". The Times of India. Retrieved 2012-11-01.
  9. ↑ "Snag disrupts Metro services". The Times of India. TNN. 2011-08-09. Retrieved 2012-11-01.
  10. ↑ "Snag hits Metro on Panchami day". The Times of India. TNN. 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2012-11-01.
  11. 1 2 Sanjay Mandal (2011-10-31). "AC rakes throw Metro off track". Telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 2012-11-01.
  12. ↑ Jayanta Gupta (2011-06-25). "Metro AC rakes may break down during rains". The Times of India. Retrieved 2012-11-01.
  13. ↑ http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=350330&catid=73
  14. ↑ Our Special Correspondent (2011-09-17). "Snag in AC Metro rake". Telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 2012-11-01.
  15. ↑ "2 days in a row, AC rake snags". Telegraphindia.com. 2011-09-18. Retrieved 2012-11-01.
  16. ↑ "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. 2011-09-20. Retrieved 2012-11-01.
  17. ↑ "AC rakes throw Metro - Yahoo! News India". In.news.yahoo.com. 2011-10-31. Retrieved 2012-11-01.

External links

Coordinates: 13°05′54″N 80°12′30″E / 13.09832°N 80.20844°E / 13.09832; 80.20844

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