Good track record

In his maiden Independence-Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited the world to ‘Make in India’. In fact, the idea is not new. As far back as 1950, Indian Railways had got down to the business of ‘Making in India’ — by setting up its first-ever major facility to manufacture steam locomotives at Mihijam in West Bengal, which was actually a collaborative venture with a UK company.

It set in motion a long-term plan for setting up half-a-dozen more such units to meet the Railways’ need for hardware, in the process providing an opportunity to India’s public sector giants such as BHEL, SAIL and private sector biggies such as the Kirloskars, Tata Timken, NEI, ABB, Siemens and Mukand to enter into long-term partnerships with the Railways to sustain its growth.

The move also saved the nation billons of dollars in foreign exchange by keeping imports at a minimal level.

This first collaborative venture in 1950 — with the North British Locomotive of UK — was soon followed in 1955 by another one with Swiss Car & Elevator Manufacturing Co. to manufacture railway coaches at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Perambur, Chennai and another one in 1961 with American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of USA to manufacture Diesel Locomotives at DLW (Diesel Locomotive Works) at Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.

A second plant — Rail Coach Factory — came up at Kapurthala in Punjab in 1984 in collaboration with Linke Hoffman Busch of West Germany.

In order to meet the growing needs for wheels and axles, a Wheel Axle Factory was set up at Yelahanka, Bangalore, in collaboration with Amsted Industries of USA in 1984.

TheRail Spring Karkhana — set up in 1986 at Sithouli near Gwalior in association 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.

The first such consignment of 47 bogies from ICF left for Thailand in 1967 and since then in all 361 bogies and 307 coaches have been exported by ICF to 13 Afro-Asian countries.

The last order for Sri Lanka was for a whopping ₹120 crore for supplying 20 rakes of six coach DEMUs (Diesel Multiple Units ).

Over the years, ICF has developed around 127 various designs of passenger coaches and self-propelled vehicles.

Confidence in its high quality of workmanship and excellent design capabilities has made public and private players order special luxury tourist trains sets such as ‘Palace on Wheels’, ‘Deccan Odyssey’, ‘The Golden Chariot’, ‘Royal Rajasthan on Wheels’ and ‘Maharaja’s Express’, which are proving to be money-spinners for the tourism industry.

While ICF could be the flag-bearer for the Indian Railways, it may be joined in by other production units, in particular DLW, which has already exported around 137 locomotives to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Tanzania, Vietnam, Malaysia, Sudan, Angola, Senegal and Mali.

The last order for sixteen 3100-hp ‘Cape gauge’ locomotives (a category for railways of 3 ft 6 inches) to Mozambique in 2008-09 against stiff global competition has further increased its foot print in Africa, which has a vast potential for growth.

The writer is a former member of the Railway Board

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