First ICF coaches for Sri Lanka by year-end
The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) will play a key role in the expansion of Sri Lanka Railways. The factory run by Indian Railways will begin exporting the first batch of coaches to Sri Lanka by the end of the year.
ICF has bagged a Rs 102-crore project to manufacture 90 Diesel Multiple Units (DMU) coaches through RITES (Rail India Technical and Economic Services). The factory has commenced production of the coaches, based on specifications received from Sri Lanka Railways. According to a pre-set schedule detailed in the project contract, ICF will manufacture and export 15 rakes. The factory is expected to supply three or four rakes before March 2010. More coaches will follow in subsequent years.
“Design works are going on and nearing completion. A few more details need to be finalised because the coach design and other requirements are unique. Sri Lanka follows a different gauge system and its coaches are smaller in size compared to Indian coaches,” said a senior ICF official. For example, the Sri Lanka Railways wants toilets in the DMU coaches, while Indian DMU coaches do not have toilets. Such coaches are designed for a 150-km journey; Indian Railways have toilets only in coaches that are used for long-distance travel.
Once work on the design is finalised, manufacturing will start around September-October. “This is a three-year contract and a fixed number of coaches need to be supplied every year. We are working as per schedule,” the official added.
ICF is also hastening the production of coaches to meet increasing local demand and to allot time for meeting export orders. The factory achieved a record in coach production in April and May 2009, the highest ever for a bimonthly period in a year – 179 coaches in April-May this year, a 26% increase, compared to the 142 coaches produced during the same period last year. Significantly, this was achieved despite more production of heavy build-coaches that required additional man-hours.
In 2008-09, ICF had exported coaches to Angola. The factory is also manufacturing suburban coaches for the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation, luxury coaches for Royal Rajasthan on Wheels and coaches for the Lifeline Express among other projects.
“The factory has exceeded its target for manufacturing railway coaches this year. It manufactured 1,337 coaches as against the target of 1,335. Keeping in mind the increase in the number of second-class passengers, the factory is focused more on producing more second-class coaches. Last year, we produced 701 second-class coaches as against the target of 604,” said ICF general manager M S Jayanth.
Source: The Times of India
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:27 am
In past few African countries also benefited from such services by Indian Rail Coach Factories. Now it is our neighboring country Sri lanka that is going to be benefited.