Integral Coach Factory (ICF) Chennai, a production unit of the Indian Railways, will start manufacturing metro coaches this year, and the 75 Vande Bharat Express Coaches, said its General Manager AK Agarwal.
Addressing the 76th Independence Day celebrations, Agarwal said that ICF, for the first time, will be turning out metro coaches for the Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation and Garib Rath Air-conditioned 3-tier coaches, facilitating passengers travel with comfort at lesser fares.
ICF has manufactured the first prototype rake of Vande Bharat Express (Version 2.0). After inspection by the Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on August 12, the prototype rake was handed over to the Research Designs & Standards Organisation for testing, says a release. The rake will go through 50,000 km of testing.
After the inspection, the Minister announced that 75 Vande Bharat trains will be manufactured at ICF for operation all over the country, Agarwal said.
ICF intends to manufacture 3,500 coaches in about 50 variants in the current year. In addition to Vande Bharat rakes, the variants will include the Vistadome Dining car for Gujarat by this September, the Gatishakti freight train on the Vande Bharat platform, and a steam engine-themed heritage train with electric propulsion.