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Over the last two decades, a very large part of the over- aged EMU stock of both central and western railways have been replaced by brand new stainless steel coaches with a more aesthetically pleasing interior fitted with air springs, disc brakes and more powerful traction motors leading to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
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’
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 pub- lic 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 ` 126 crores !
The ICF has a fully computerised design and development cell is equipped with state- of- theart 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.