The Hindu Business Line : ICF annual production likely to touch 1,250 coaches

THE Integral Coach Factory (ICF) is likely to touch an annual production of 1,250 coaches in the next couple of years. This is to meet the demand for coaches due to increasing passenger traffic in the country, said Mr Shivendra Kumar, General Manager, ICF.

The current production capacity at ICF is around 1,000 coaches a year, he told Business Line.

During 2003-04, the value of coaches manufactured was Rs 610 crore, and during the current year it would be Rs 647.70 crore, he said.

ICF is one of the oldest railway coach manufacturing units in the country. The former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru flagged off the first coach at ICF on October 2, 1955. ICF completes 50 years on October 2, 2005, and it plans to observe the next 12 months as `Golden Jubilee' year.

In 2003-04, ICF recorded its highest ever production of 1,070 coaches, and the target for the current fiscal is 1,106 coaches, Mr Kumar said. Since its inception , there has been a gradual increase in the number of coaches rolled out at ICF. The factory started with an initial capacity to build 350 coaches a year, in single shift, which was increased to 700 coaches.

During the modernisation programme in the 1980s, ICF increased its capacity to 900 coaches, he said. "Going by the current trend, we would reach about 1,250 coaches in the next couple of years," he said.

On exports, Mr Kumar said that the ICF had recently bagged an order to supply 11-coach shell to Malaysian Railways, and the work is under progress.