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Integral Coach Factory Perumbur
Situated in Perumbur, on the outskirts of the Chennai Metropolis, Integral Coach Factory is the chief Manufacturing Unit of the Indian Railways producing passenger coaches for railways. The Integral Coach Factory or ICF as it is popularly known was founded after Independence in the year 1955 with Swiss collaboration. The product planned was the light weight, all steel and all welded railway passenger coaches, known as Integral Coaches.
From an initial plan to produce 350 Broad Guage shells or unfurnished skeletons of coaches per year to be supplied to Zonal Railway Workshops for fabrication the plans were expanded to 750 fully furnished coaches and then on to 850 coaches per annum in 1986-87 and further to 1000 coaches in 1990-91. Now, with further modernization, the capacity will be enhanced to 1250 coaches per annum and to 1500 coaches per annum by adding to infrastructure.
Integral Coach Design
The roof, side walls, end wall and the under frame are joined together by welding to form a fully Integral coach shell. Passenger safety is of primary concern and hence the construction of end-walls has been made specially strong The design incorporates features that ensure minimum impact during rail accidents or derailments.
Modifying and improving on the basic Swiss design, ICF now has designed and manufactured more than 350 types of coaches for the Indian Railways and for Export with emphasis on safety and comfort with due regard for the new high speed trains. To ensure complete quality checks ICF has acquired the ISO: 9001, ISO: 14001 and ISO: 18001 certificates for the QMS, EMS and OHSAS systems
Types of Coaches :
ICF manufactures a wide variety of coaches:
1. SELF PROPELLED COACHES
- Electric Multiple Units for suburban services in Metropolitan cities;
- Diesel Rail Cars;
- Coaches for Kolkata Metro Railways;
- Diesel Electric Multiple Units & Diesel Hydraulic Multiple Units for non-electrified routes
- Mainline Electric Multiple Units for long distance inter-city trains
- Accident Relief Trains / Medical Vans
- OHE Inspection Cars
2. AIR-CONDITIONED & NON-AIRCONDITIONED PASSENGER COACHES
- Air-conditioned Sleeper Coaches of first & second class;
- Air-conditioned Chair Cars of first and second class;
- Double Decker Coaches with seating capacity for 148 passengers as against the conventional 90 passengers.
3. SPECIAL COACHES
- Air-conditioned & Non-air-conditioned Pantry Cars
- High Capacity Power Cars for Shatabdi & Rajdhani Express Trains
- Air-conditioned Military Ward and Saloon Cars for Indian Army.
- Air-conditioned Saloon Cars, Dining Cars, Bar & Restaurant Cars, luxury suites for luxury tourist trains like Palace on Wheels (WR), Deccan Odyssey (CR), The Golden Chariot (SWR), Royal Rajasthan on Wheels (NWR) and Maharajas Express of IRCTC
- Lifeline Express for operation of hospital on wheels
- Jet Deflector Crane Cars, Inter Communication Coaches for DRDO
EXPORT
ICF has successfully won export contracts, exporting 359 coaches, 11 coach shells and 481 AC coaches to mostly Afro-Asian countries and also won the Export Excellence Award. In the face of stiff international competition from more advanced countries like Japan, this is truly commendable.