Chennai: Taking a huge ‘technological’ stride towards light-weight rail coaches on par with international standards, the Integral Coach Factory, Perambur, will start manufacturing aluminium coaches from 2020, S. Mani, general manager, ICF, said on Saturday.
At an event to mark the achievement of 2,500 coaches in 2017-18, Mani also said that ICF would export its coaches to Sri Lanka. On March 31, ICF rolled out a total of 2,503 coaches of various capacities.
According to ICF higher officials, the manufacturing unit of Indian Railways had crossed the 2,500-mark for the first time.
“We had manufactured 2,277 coaches in 2016-17. That feat remained as our top performance until we crossed 2,500 today (Saturday). Our 2500th coach with 102 seats will go to Eastern Railway. We have manufactured 39 more coaches than Railway Board's target,” one official said. Senior most employees of ICF C. Bakthavatchalam and V. Rajagopal flagged off the 2,500th coach in presence of Mani. Train-18 would be almost on par with international standards.
But Train-20 will be on par with international standards with aluminium coaches, Mani told journalists.
According to ICF officials, Train-18 will be rolled out in 2018. “We are now making coaches using stainless steel. Starting from Trian-20, aluminium coaches will be manufactured in significant numbers after 2020”.The officials also said that ICF had exported coaches to as many as 14 African and Asian countries from 1970.
