ICF and RLY Heritage Get a Pat
S Vishnu Sharma, INN/Chennai, @svs037
Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai was the cynosure of all eyes as it ventured ahead to celebrate 64th Railway Week celebrations. Ambedkar auditorium on ICF’s premises hosted the special event. Rich railway history won praises from Banwarilal Purohit, Governor of Tamilnadu.
Indian Railways is the fourth largest establishment in the world under single management. The prestigious establishment helped 826 crore passengers reach their destinations during the last fiscal year, he said. The revenue of the mammoth organisation stood at Rs 1.75 lakh crore, he said.
Mr. Banarilal Purohit
The great organisation has stood the test of time and its performance will continue to remain impressive in the years to come, said Governor Banwarilal. Speaking about ICF he said its show was impressive.
It is a matter of pride that ICF, from a humble start of manufacturing second class coach shells with Swiss collaboration, has progressed to manufacturing luxury coaches such as Palace on Wheels, to the present day’s technically advanced Vande Bharat Express (Train 18) coaches.
He added that with all these developments by ICF, India can become a self-sufficient Nation. By emphasizing transparency and time management, it can progress rapidly, he concluded. N.K. Gupta, principal chief electrical engineer, ICF said they have increased the production of coaches by 30 percent in the year 2018-19 by bringing out 3262 coaches when compared to 2503 coaches during 2017-18.
He said after moving to make Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches, ICF has brought out 2222 LHB coaches this year, which is a 100 percent increase over last year’s production of 1111 LHB coaches. Saying that Vande Bharat Express (Train 18) is a product from them that has won the hearts of all, he added that it stood as a testimony of Make in India with 80 percent indigenization.
They have been given production programme of manufacturing 44 more such Vande Bharat Express train sets by Railway Board. While the first rake is now under production and balance rakes will be rolled out in phases in the next three years. While three rakes of DEMUs were exported to Sri Lanka earlier, this year, it has been planned to export three more DEMU rakes to Sri Lanka.
Over 200 employees of ICF were honored with medals and certificates. They received them from Banwarilal Purohit. A.K. Kathpal, principal chief mechanical engineer, S.K. Parhi, principal chief security commissioner, Usha Venugopal, principal financial advisor were among those present.