ICF to produce over 360 LHB rail coaches in two years

Integral Coach Factory (ICF) plans to produce 67 stainless steel state-of-the-art Linke Holfmann Busch (LHB) high speed coaches this year and follow it up with another 300 in 2015-16, a top company official has said.

The production unit of Indian Railways manufacturing passenger coaches had for the first time produced three variants of LHB EOG shells during 2013-14, its General Manager Ashok K Agarwal said.

ICF produced a total of 1,662 general coaches last fiscal, registering its largest production in a financial year, he said, adding that the organisation has produced more than 49,000 coaches since its inception.

Referring to the green initiatives of the unit, he said ICF has rolled out one rake of environment friendly CNG (Compressed Natural Gas), DEMU (Diesel Electric Multiple Unit).

In a significant step towards adopting green fuel, the Railway Minister had launched this ICF built CNG train by flagging off the train on the Rewari-Rohtak section of Northern Railway on January 14 this year, he added.

Business standard

 

Infosys Bats for AC Local Trains

A proposal to have an entirely air-conditioned (AC) suburban train on the Beach-Chengalpattu route is under discussion   with top Railway authorities. The suggestion was mooted by IT major Infosys for the benefit of its employees and other commuters, sources said.

The proposal is reportedly a six-year-old one and was revived when DV Sadananda Gowda was the Union Railway Minister.

A meeting was held with the authorities of  Infosys, Gowda and officials of the Southern Railway, ICF and IRCTC, in the city a few months ago. The project also came up for discussion after Suresh Prabhu took charge of the Ministry, sources said.

Infosys had made the proposal as it would ensure a comfortable journey for many of its employees to Mahindra Info city which is located near Chengalpattu. The ticket fare proposed was also higher than the normal fare on the route and ticketing could be handled by IRCTC, sources said.

According to the sources, Railways wanted Infosys to reserve the entire train for its employees and pay for it, but Infosys wanted it to be open to other commuters who might want to use it. The proposal is still under discussion, sources indicated.

Indian Express.

 

 

NID-designed user-friendly dustbins in trains soon

Trains will soon have user-friendly dustbins designed by NID in all coaches as Railways has stepped up efforts to keep its premises clean in line with the Swachh Bharat campaign.

Barring AC and a few non-AC sleeper coaches, majority of coaches currently are not equipped with dustbins resulting in problems in depositing garbage in moving trains.

“We have asked the NID to design user-friendly dustbins with enhanced capacity than the existing ones,” a senior Railway Ministry official said, adding “NID will also suggest location for these improved dustbins to be placed for easy accessibility.”

This move came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in “Mann ki baat” programme on AIR on November 2 last year that Railway coaches need to have adequate dustbins.

“It has been observed that existing dustbins are not adequate enough to collect garbage in coaches. So NID has been asked to improve the design accordingly,” the official said.

Instructions have been issued to all production units and zonal railways to fit dustbins of enhanced capacity in all the newly-manufactured coaches.

The official said instructions have also been issued to retrofit dustbins in coaches, which were not provided earlier, in a phased manner.

Currently, both AC and non-AC LHB coaches are being provided with two dustbins at both sides of the coach. All conventional AC coaches manufactured at Integrated Coach Factory at Chennai are also being equipped with dustbins.

However, non-AC coaches made at ICF Chennai and Rail Coach Factory at Kapurthala are not provided with dustbins.

The official said adequate provisions for removing garbage from the dustbins and disposing garbage at nominated points have also been made.

Railways has launched its cleanliness campaign across the country to keep platforms, stations and trains clean. The Ministry has also outsourced cleaning operations in 50 stations as a pilot project.

DNA Indian

 

ICF Bags National Energy Conservation Award for 2014

Indian Railways’ coach manufacturing unit Integral Coach Factory (ICF) located in Perambur was awarded the first prize in the ‘National Energy Conservation Award’ for 2014 by the union power minister Piyush Goyal on December 14.

The markers for the awards are based on initiatives taken by organisations to conserve energy and decrease in specific energy consumption. ICF has bagged this award for the second consecutive year. The award was received by Ashok Agarwal, General Manager, ICF.

ICF generates its entire electrical energy requirements for the factory work shops and offices from the renewable source of energy by setting up seven wind Mills of 1.5MVA capacity each in the Tirunelveli district. Incidentally, it is the only production unit to source its energy requirement from wind energy.

The energy requirement for manufacture of the Equated Coach Unit (ECU) in ICF has come down from 10,211 units in 2009-10 to 8,828 units in 2013-14 due to adoption of various energy conservation measures implemented in coach production, a release said.

The award is instituted by the Ministry of Power and is decided by the Award Evaluation Committee under the Bureau of Energy Efficiency. The awards are given during the National Energy Conservation Day on  December 14 every year.

Indian Express

 

Rlys’ braille seat number plan takes off, tenders by month-end

Good news in store for the visually impaired people who travel by the railways everyday. The railways’ plan to have braille numbering and other signs for the visually-impaired finally got off the ground with the Integral Coach Factory inviting tenders for the large-scale supply of these items.

The first big tender for braille numbers to indicate the berths of long-distance trains was issued this week and will be opened at the ICF’s Chennai headquarters on November 25.

Confirming the development, Alok Johri, member (mechanical) said it is for the first time that the railways was going for these braille signage for its long-distance trains’ coaches. Currently, such long distance trains’ coaches have their signage, seat numbers as well as general instructions in the normal format written on vinyl stickers or metallic plates only helpful to normal passengers.

DNA Indian

 

Vestibules for AC locals arrive in Chennai

Railway officials have managed to zero in on one of the most important design details of the first-ever air-conditioned Mumbai local—how vestibules connect the 12 coaches of the train.

Officials said vestibules would be placed in such a manner as to enable people to walk from the first to the sixth coach from both ends. The middle portion would out of bounds as that is where the train’s electric motors are.

These vestibules is of Chinese-make and the contract to procure them has been given to a Lucknow-based firm, said officials.

“Of course, in Mumbai there are separate compartments for first class passengers, women, the handicapped, etc. That design may not be followed here as that would be a completely new segment for Mumbai suburban railway. The electrical motor bifurcate the train and people can walk through a set of six coaches,” said a railway official.

After a slow start, pace of construction of the train at Integral Coach Factory in Chennai had picked up, said officials. The work schedule should allow ICF to send the train to Mumbai by next January end.

“The electrical equipment is being tested at Bhopal by BHEL and Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO). It should be send to Chennai in a few weeks time,” said officials.

The dampener for Mumbai commuters, however, is that officials are unable to give a time-frame on when the train would hold its trial runs. “It has taken over a year to test the two Bombardier rakes. The AC rake is a completely new product, and so, if the same yardstick is applied, it might take almost a year to test it,” said the official.

This means, the train may not be deployed before the end of next year, said some officials.

“While for many years everyone agreed that Mumbai’s massive suburban system needed a completely new air-conditioned segment, the speed at which the plan is being implemented is poor. Even now, there is no clarity on how many AC rakes would be finally deployed. These are decisions that need to be taken quickly, because manufacturing these rakes takes time,” said a senior railway official.

DNA Indian

 

Integral Coach Factory strong at 60

Perambur was once a vast stretch of barren land with a few people settled there. Neighbouring Anna Nagar, now a premium micro-market, was so uninhabited that the Railway Protection Force had used it as a firing range then. It all changed between 1949 and 1955, the formative years of the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), which turned 60 on October 2.

In the diamond jubilee years, ICF has not only emerged as a hub of rail coach production, but has also redrawn the skyline of Perambur and its surroundings. M/s Swiss Cars and Elevator Manufacturing Corporation, Zurich, has to be thanked for letting Perambur occupy a place in railway history. This was the company that transferred technology for broad gauge coach building to India, to the Perambur Coach Factory (as ICF was called for a while) in 1949.

There was no looking back thereon. Bullock carts carried machinery from Chennai Port to ICF in 1949. The barren lands slowly made way for full-fledged workshops in 1955 when the first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru (along with Indira Gandhi) came to Perambur and inaugurated the ICF (shell division) on October 2, 1955. In barely seven years, ICF had produced 1,000 coaches and expanded into a furnishing division as well, employing over 16,000 workers who settled around the factory. Soon the few settlements turned into colonies, turning Perambur into one of the most densely populated parts of the city. So began the rise of ICF and how Perambur acquired relative fame .

QUEEN ELIZABETH VISITED ICF

ICF’s date with history has more to it than record production and development of the neighbourhood. Even the likes of Queen Elizabeth II, the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Zhou EnLai, spiritual leader Dalai Lama and many more set foot in this vast industrial estate.

STARTED WITH 375 SHELL CAPACITY

ICF had humble beginnings: it started with a capacity of 375 shells in 1955 (its 100th coach being inaugurated in 1957). Today it has set a unique record of producing the maximum coaches in one place, 1,622 in 2013 alone (48,708 till September 2014). Be it the first non-AC coach (1961) or Rajdhani (1980) or Garib Rath (2006) or the Palace on Wheels and Maharaja Express, everything was crafted to perfection with nails and hammers at the ICF workshop.

Deccan Herald

 

ICF to manufacture 975 LHB coaches in three years

The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai is planning to step up production of LHB ( Linke Hofmann Busch) coaches, which are safer and faster.

The factory, which manufactures coaches for Indian Railways, will make 75 LHB coaches this year, 300 next year and 600 coaches the year after. LHB coaches are made of stainless steel.

“We are planning to switch to stainless steel coaches completely in five years. These coaches are better suited as there is a corrosion problem in coastal areas. LHB coaches have a life of 35 years and are equipped for speeds up to 160kmph and can be upgraded to run at 200kmph and are ideal for high speed trains,” said ICF general manager Ashok K Agarwal at a press conference here on Tuesday.

The move comes after the railway board decided to phase out the ICF-designed integral coaches and switch to LHB coaches. LHB coaches are safe as they won’t pile up over other coaches during an accident. Travel comfort is also high when compared to the conventional coaches.

“The cost of production of LHB coaches is more in comparison with the conventional coaches. A conventional coach costs Rs 80 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore and LHB coach costs Rs 1.6 crore to Rs 2 crore.”

He said of the 1,622 coaches that were made last year, 386 were given to Southern Railway by Railway Board. “This year 152 coaches were given to the zone till September,” he added.

ICF is performing well in the 2014-15 production year. The half yearly production from April to September was the highest ever for each month in comparison with that in previous year. The cumulative outturn of 824 coaches during the first half of this year is the highest ever for the period and is 24.5% more than the production in the corresponding period last year.

The factory, founded in 1955, is celebrating the diamond jubilee year this year. The ICF had produced 48,708 coaches till September 2014 and will cross the 50,000th mark in the diamond jubilee year.

“A series of programmes are planned for the diamond jubilee year celebrations. These include an ICF Diamond Jubilee Exhibition Express, which will travel to all zonal headquarters and production units, a special postal stamp and cover, a mass tree plantation drive, sports and cultural competitions, medical camps for employees, a diamond jubilee scholarship fund and improvement of facilities for residential units,” he added.

TOI

 

Hurtling towards a ‘Made in India’ dream

In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent exhortation in his recent Independence Day address to the nation, the railways has already been in the business of ‘making in India’ for over six decades

While enjoying perhaps the world’s lowest fares on the famous “locals”, Mumbaikars may also like to know that “stainless steel horses” they ride on their daily trip from home to workplace and back is very much “Made in India”, at the integral coach factory (ICF), Perambur, Chennai.

Set up in 1955, in collaboration with Swiss Car & Elevator Manufacturing Co., it has been churning hundreds of passenger coaches every year for the growing needs of Indian Railways. Recently the ICF gas completed its 50,000th coach.

In recent years, a substantial part of its resources have been dedicated to manufacturing EMUs (Electric Multiple Units), which form the backbone of the 428-km suburban network of central and western railways in Mumbai. Keeping pace with the new technologies, the ICF has successfully changed over from DC to AC/DC and now AC traction system is vastly improving service reliability and availability of the EMU stock.

Over the last two decades, a very large part of the over-aged EMU stock of both central and western railways have been replaced by brand new stainless steel coaches with a more aesthetically pleasing interior fitted with air springs, disc brakes and more powerful traction motors leading to not only superior ride, but higher speeds and reliable operation.

The first-ever coaches for the Kolkata Metro designed by the Research Design and Standards Organisation the R&D arm of Indian Railways were manufactured by the ICF in 1984. Since then, recent upgraded supplies have added features that make it at par with those acquired by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation at almost two-third the cost.

In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent exhortation in his recent Independence Day address to the nation, the railways has already been in the business of “making in India’ for over last six decades.

The first ever major facility to manufacture steam locomotives at Mihijam, West Bengal, set up in 1950, was the brainchild of Jawaharlal Nehru and Bidhan Chandra Roy, the then chief minister of West Bengal who made available vast tracts of non-arable land for the project. It also set in motion a long-term plan for creating half a dozen more such units to meet the railways’ need for hardware, in the process providing an opportunity to Indian giants in the public sector viz. BHEL, SAIL and also private sector big guns such as Kirloskars, Tata Timken, NEI, ABB, Siemens, Mukand etc. to enter in a long-term partnership with the Railways to sustain its growth while saving the nation billions of dollars in foreign exchange by keeping imports at a minimal level.

The year 1950 saw the first collaborative venture with North British Locomotive of the UK. In 1955, the ICF collaborated with Swiss Car & Elevator Manufacturing Co. of Schlieren. In 1961, the OCF joined hands with the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of the US to manufacture diesel locomotives at DLW (Diesel Locomotive Works) at Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. A second plant viz. RCF (Rail Coach Factory) came up at Kapurthala in 1984, to manufacture high-speed coaches in collaboration with Linke Hoffman Busch of West Germany. Forming the bulk of Shatabdi and Rajdhani rakes, these provide superior riding and passenger comfort, while running at the optimum speed of 130 km/h.

In order to meet the growing needs for wheels and axles, a WAF (Wheel Axle Factory) was set up at Yellahanka, Bengaluru in collaboration with Amsted Industries of the US. In 1984, while DMW (Diesel Maintenance Works) built in 1982 at Patiala, Punjab, manufactures spares for the growing fleet of diesel locomotives, similar one for electric locos has recently been commissioned at Dankuni, in West Bengal. Rail Spring Karkhana set up in 1986, at Sithouli near Gwalior with West German aid (KFW), to manufacture coil springs for the wagon and passenger coach bogies completes the list of eight production units.

These excellent manufacturing facilities also attracted developing nations to source their needs for rolling stock and locomotives from India at rock-bottom prices. After exporting the first 47 bogies to Thailand in 1967, the ICF has not looked back and since then 361 bogies and 447 coaches have been exported to no less than 13 Afro-Asian countries. The last order from Sri Lanka for supplying 20 rakes of six coach DEMUs (diesel multiple units) earned the ICF Rs.126 crores !

The ICF has a fully computerised design and development cell is equipped with state-of-the-art computer designing facilities and testing equipment, both for coach components and raw materials. And with strain gauge testing and squeeze test procedures for prototypes before commencement of series production, and an “ISO.9001” certificate for its quality systems from M/s. TUV, Germany to boot, the ICF is now poised to enter the export market in a big way.

It will be in line with Mr Modi’s recent initiative to make India not only a manufacturing hub for the world, but also “export”. DLW which has also been in the business and exported 137 locomotives to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Burma, Tanzania, Vietnam, Malaysia, Sudan, Angola, Senegal and Mali. The last order for 16,3100 hp cape gauge locomotives to Mozambique in 2008-09 against stiff global competition has already increased its footprint in Africa, and could very well lead the charge from PM’s very own constituency, viz. Varanasi.

R.C. Acharya is a former member of the Railway Board

Asian Age

 

ICF to make more German-tech coaches

Safer, more comfortable LHB coaches will be introduced for more trains soon

Production of Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches, manufactured with German assistance, will increase at Integral Coach Factory in Perambur, in the coming years.

The coaches are used on the double-decker express train between Chennai and Bangalore, and in the future, they will be seen in other long-distance trains too.

Last financial year, the 59-year-old factory rolled out 25 coaches. ICF has set a target of 100 LHB coaches for the current financial year and 300 for 2015-16.

Official sources at ICF said the technology transfer from Germany to India was made more than a decade ago, and initially, only airconditioned coaches were manufactured at Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, for high-speed express trains, mostly the Shatabdi.

With Indian Railways’ engineers mastering the technology, it was decided to use the same technology for designing and fabricating second-class coaches as well.

Officials said the manufacture of LHB coaches began at ICF last year and the first batch was rolled out in January. Despite the much higher cost of manufacturing LHB coaches, they have plenty of advantages, the most important one being safety.

Officials said LHB coaches, unlike conventional ones, would not pile up over other coaches in the event of an accident because of the ‘anti-climbing technology’ embedded in the coach links.

The ‘pneumatic braking system’ was advanced making it possible to bring them to a halt quickly, even at high speeds.

The combination of stainless steel body and aluminium interiors makes the coaches much lighter, making it possible to attain speeds in excess of 150 kilometres per hour. Further, the coaches have a lifespan of 35 years, 10 more than the conventional coaches. Though they are very expensive, costing approximately Rs. 1.5 crore each, officials said there would be long-term benefits as the ‘per-kilometre cost’ would come down significantly.

Second-class LHB coaches are 23.54 metres long (2.2 metres more than the conventional coaches), have additional width and 80 berths.

With a thrust on manufacturing LHB coaches, a sum in excess of Rs. 150 crore has been allotted to the furnishing unit at ICF, part of a major expansion plan.

With plans to create Tambaram as the third terminal after Chennai Central and Egmore, and introduce new trains to the southern districts, commuters can look forward to a quicker, safer and more comfortable journey.

The Hindu