India’s premier coach manufacturing unit, ICF (Integral Coach Factory) Chennai, will roll out three diesel multiple unit (DMU) train rakes for Sri Lanka this month.
This is part of the consignment of 20 rakes, each comprising six coaches, ordered by the island nation from India.
“We’ve already exported 17 rakes last year. The remaining three non-air conditioned rakes are likely to be despatched by July 25,” a senior official in the ICF said.
Though ICF has been producing and exporting coaches to several countries across the globe, this is the first time it is making coaches for Sri Lanka.
“In fact, a team of railway delegates from Bangladesh visited our facility two weeks ago to explore the possibility of exports from here,” the official said.
So far, ICF has exported 359 bogies, 11 stainless steel coach shells and 481 coaches, including air-conditioned ones, to 13 African and Asian countries.
45,000 coaches so far Adding another feather to its cap, the ICF rolled out its 45, 000th furnished coach last week, since its inception in 1955. The ICF has been producing various types of coaches such as self-propelled, air-conditioned & non-air-conditioned passenger coaches and special coaches.
Meanwhile, the ICF has won the Golden Peacock Eco Innovation Award - 2012 for manufacture of AC/DC Electrical Multiple Units (EMUs) for the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC).
Announcing this at a press conference here recently, Abhay K Khanna, General Manager, ICF, said these rakes consumed 35 per cent less electrical energy compared to the conventional EMU rakes.
With the inclusion of these rakes, the Mumbai suburban network annually saves about 200 million units of electrical energy, saving `100 crore per annum, he added.
Khanna also said that ICF, Chennai, had set a target to manufacture 1,601 coaches this financial year, while it rolled out 1,500 coaches in the last fiscal (2011-12). (Express News Service)
