Industry Profile

1.2 INDUSTRY PROFILE

The first railway on Indian sub-continent ran over a stretch of 21 miles from Bombay
to Thane. The idea of a railway to connect Bombay with Thane, Kalian and the Thal and
Bhore Ghats inclines first occurred to Mr. George Clark, the chief engineer of the Bombay
Government, during a visit to Bhandub in 1843.
The formal inauguration ceremony was performed on 16th April 1853, when 14
railway carriages carrying about 400 guests left Bore Bunder. The first passenger train
streamed out of Howrah station designed for Hooghly, a distance of24 miles, on 15th August,
1854. Thus the first section of the East Indian Railways was opened as the public traffic,
inaugurating the beginning of railway transport on the Eastern side of the sub-continent.
In south the first line was opened on 1st July 1856 by the Madras Railway Company. It ran between
Vyasrpady and Wallajah road (Arcot), a distance of 63 miles. In the north a length of 119 miles of
line was laid from Allahabad to Kanpur on 3rd March 1859.These was the small beginning which in
due course developed in to a network of railway lines all over the country. By 1880 the Indian railway
system had a route mileage of about 9000 miles. Indian railways, the premier transport organization
of the largest rail network in Asia and the world’s second largest under one management. The coach
factory provides a number of different coaches primarily for the Indian Railways, primarily first and
second class coaches, pantry and kitchen cars, luggage and brake vans, self propelled coaches,
electric, diesel and mainline electric multiple units (EMU, DMU, MEMU), metro coaches and Diesel
Electric Tower Cars (DETC), Accident Relief Medical Vans (ARMV), Inspection Cars (RA), Fuel
Test Cars, Track Recording Cars, the latest coaches are for the Deccan Odyssey (a luxury train of the
Indian Railways), and coaches for MRVC (world class coaches).

The railways in the various sectors were built by private sterling companies who were
guaranteed a fixed rate of exchange and specific return on the capital invested by them. The contracts
with the working companies were terminated in due course and the management of the companies
was taken over directly by the government as a result of integration of the Indian states into a small
number of sizable units after their incorporation in the union and izingthe arterial railways systems in
1944 and the further integration all the railways in the Indian states into the Indian railways the need
for establishing a smaller number of major units, reorganizing the internal set up to of each unit with
a view to securing, long scale economics and, improving and standardizing practices, become even
more pronounced than in the past. With these objective in view, the different Indian railway system
were regrouped and focused into six major zonal railway units during 1951-52 due to increase in work
load, the zones were increased form six zones to sixteen in due course .These are a proposal to create
six more zones which is under progress. For administrative convenience, the entire Indian railways
system is divided into sixteen zone railways each zone railways is divided into various department
and different divisions for efficient administration, smooth functioning and improving the operational
efficient administration, smooth functions and improving the operational efficiency .The sixteen zonal
railways and their respective head-quarters are as under.

THE RAILWAYS ZONES ARE

Name of the Zonal Railways Head

Quarters

Northern Railways New Delhi

Eastern Railways Kolkata

Western Railways
Churchgate/Mumbai

Southern Railways Chennai

Central Railways Mumbai CST

North Eastern Railway Gorakhpur

North East Frontier Railway Guwahati

South Central Railway Kolkata

South Central Railway Secundrabad

East Coast Railway Bhuvaneshwar

East Central Railway Hajipur

North Central Railway Allahabad

North Western Railway Jaipur

South Western railway Hubli

West Central Railway Jabalpur

South East Central Railways Bilaspur

PRODUCTION UNITS

1.Chittaranjan Loco Works

2.Diesel-Loco Modernization of workshops

3.center for railway information system

4.Container Corporation of India Ltd

5.Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd

6.Indian Railway Finance Corporation IRCON International Ltd

7.Konkani Railway Corporation

8.Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation

9.RAILTEL Corporation of India Ltd

10. Pipavav Corporation Ltd.

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS UNDER INDIAN RAILWAYS

1. Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd

2.Central organization for railway electrification

3.Delhi Metro Rail Corporation

4. Federation of Railway Officers Associations

5.Indian Railway Accounts Service Association

6.Indian Railway Accounting Reforms

7.Indian Railway Central Organization for Telecom

8.Indian Railway Stores Services

9.Indian Railway Welfare Organization

10. Indian Railways Institute of Electrical Engineering

11. Indian Railway Institute of Engineering and Telecommunications of Railway Transport

12. National Rail Museum

13. Railway Recruitment Boards

14. Railway Staff College, Baroda

15. Research Design and Standards Organization

16. Indian Railway Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.

TERRITORIAL READJUSTMENT OF ZONES AND IN-HOUSE PERFORMS

In order to bring about greater efficiency in administration, speedy implementation of

ongoing projects, better customer care, reduction of workload on General Managers etc.,
Indian Railways have decided to create seven new zones by territorial re-adjustment of
existing zones. The new zones, having limited financial burden on Railways, will have thin
and lean, efficient and modern administrative set up. Two of the new zones have already
started functioning.

NATIONAL RAIL VIKAS YOJANA

With a view to complete strategically important projects within a stipulated period of
time, a non-budgetary imitative for the development of railways has been launched. Under
the scheme all the capacity bottlenecks in the critical sections of the railway network will be
removed at an investment of Rs.15000crores over the next five years. These projects would
include:

1. Strengthening of the golden quadrilateral to run more long-distance mail/express and

Freight trains at a higher speed of 100kmph.
2. Strengthening of rail connectivity to ports and development of multimodal corridors to
hinterland.

3. Construction of four mega bridges-two over River Ganga, one on River Brahmaputra,
And one over river kasi.
4. Accelerated completion of those projects nearing completion and other important
projects.

NEW STEPS TOWARDS SAFETY AND SECURITY

Safety of 13 million passengers that Indian Railways serve every day is of paramount
importance to the system. Over the years, apart from the regular safety norms followed, the
network has taken a number of steps through innovative use of technology and stepped up
training to its manpower to enhance safety standards. Constitution of Rs 17000 crores non-
lapsable Special Railway Fund (SRSF) to replace the arrears of aging assets of railway over
the next six years has been a historical move in this direction.

A number of distressed bridges, old tracks, signaling system and other safety
enhancement devices will be replaced during this period. Extensive field trials of the anti-
collision Device (ACD), indigenously developed by Konkani Railway, are going on and once
deployed across the Zonal Railways, this innovative technology will help railways accidents
due to collision between trains. Security of railway passengers is at present a shared
responsibility of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the Government Reserve police
(GRP). Efforts on to amend the Railway Act it give more powers to the RPF in ensuring
security of passengers on trains and within Railway premises. Development of Women Police
Force has been made for security and assistance of women passengers.

IMPROVING FINANCIAL HEALTH:

The financial position of Indian Railway has been slowly but steadily improving.
Some of the highlights of the financial performance during 2001-2002 include: improved
operating ratio from 98.8 percent to 96.6 percent, savings in ordinary working expenses of
Rs.1487 crores.

Depreciation Reserve Fund (DRF) balance goes up from Rs.78.04 crores during March in last
year to Rs.632.99 corers this year. Railways have established a new milestone in incremental
freight loading during July this year by carrying 5.70 million tones of goods. Freight loading
for the last financial year crossed the target and attained 492.31 million tones.

NEW TRENDS IN PASSENGERS AMENITIES

To take care of the unreserved segment of the passengers, a new pilot project on
computer based unreserved ticketing has been launched. Of the 13 million passengers served
by the network every day, nearly 12 million are unreserved passengers. To cater to this huge
segment, computer based ticketing systems has been launched for all most all important
stations. With this, unreserved tickets can be issued even from locations other than the
boarding station and will reduce crowds at booking offices and stations.

Indian railway catering and Tourism Corporation with the assistance of center for
Railway Information System have launched online ticketing facility. Computerized
reservation facilities were added at 245 new locations. At present these facilities are available
at 758locations in the country covering about 96 percent of the total workload of passenger
reservation. Computerized reservation related enquiries about accommodation availability,
passenger’s status, train scheduled, train between pair of stations etc., have been made web
enabled.
A pilot project for issuing monthly and quarterly season tickets through Automated
Teller Machine (ATM) has been launched in Mumbai this year and has been found very
successful. Another pilot project for purchasing tickets including monthly and quarterly
season tickets through smart card has also been launched.
‘National Train Enquiry System’ has been started in order to provide upgraded
passenger information and enquiries. This system provides the train running position on a
current basis through various output devices such as terminals in the station enquiries and
Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) at important railway stations. So far the project
has been implemented at 98 stations.

TIE-UP WITH FOREIGN RAILWAYS

Indian Railways is in constant touch with Railways across the world to bring in state-
of-art facilities in its system. Towards this, a memorandum of understanding was signed
during the English Session of the Indo-Austria Joint Economic Commission held in Vienna.
This seeks to promote and deepen long-term infrastructure Specific Corporation between
Indian and Austrian Railways to their mutual benefit.
Company Profile
INTRODUCTION OF THE FIRM

Integral Coach Factory is an ISO-9001 company. It has its own Design and
Development wing, the infrastructure and technical knowhow to manufacture sophisticated
Modern coaches.ICF all-steel, all-welded, light-weight; ‘integral’ coaches with anti-
telescopic and construction. The ICF combines the three major factors of modern passenger
transport: - Speed, Comfort and Safety.
Initially, ICF was designed to produce only broad gauge shells, which were to be
furnished by the zonal railways. Later, a separate furnishing division was set up in view of
the serve limitation capacity of railway workshops and also to take advantages of mass
productiontechniques.Presently; Coach Production is done in shell division and Furnishing
division.
ICF manufactured around 125 different types of coaches. They can be broadly
classified into Self-propelled coaches, Trailer coaches, AC coaches, Conventional coaches
and Special coaches like palace on wheels.ICF produced 34,022 coaches as on March
2004.ICFmanufactured and supplied 150 containers to Container Corporation India in
addition to coaches, production in the last four years.ICF has exported Coaches, Bogies and
Spares to 11 countries.

History

The Integral Coach Factory was set up in 1951 with the help of M/s Swiss Car and Elevator
Manufacturing Corporation Ltd., Schlieren-Zurich (Switzerland). It was inaugurated by the then
Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on 2nd October 1955. Production began in a modest
manner in 1955 with the manufacture of seven third class coach shells. Today the coach factory
produces more than 1100 coaches of more than 170 varieties. In the year 2007-08, ICF created a
milestone by producing 1291 railway passenger coaches, as against its installed capacity of 1000
coaches per annum. It employs about 13,000 persons. Every year they are manufacturing nearly 1335
coaches. Per day they are manufacturing 3 coaches.
TWO DIVISIONS IN ICF

1. Shell Division
2. Furnishing Division

SHELL DIVISION

The coach manufacturing starts from Shell Division, where the body shell and
Bogie Assembles are done. The body shell assembly is of all welded integrated design and it
consists of under frame, sidewall, roof and end wall assemblies. A shell is made of one body
shell fitted on two bogies. A sheet metal shop produces all sheet metal items required for the
manufacture founder frame, sidewall and roof.

1. A main assembly shop assembles the under frame; sidewall, end wall and roof to from a
Tube like shell.
2. Final assembly, painting of the shell and fitment of air brake arrangement are done in the
final assembly shop.
3. Bogies are manufactured by assembling the bogie bolster, wheel sets, axle box and
springs together.
The body shells fitted on the bogie are dispatched to furnishing Division for Furnishing work.

COACH FURNISHING DIVISION

Aesthetic look, comfort and safety are very much essential for pleasant journey;
Furnishing division takes care of the above and furnishing the interior portion of the coaches.
Furnishing of coach is done in ten stages, via, flooring, wiring, paneling on side wall,
window fixing, and partition paneling, plumping, floor molding .light &fans and seats, berth
and racks fixing and buffer height adjustment .

Compreg plywood, limpet asbestos sheets, PVC sheets, Latex cushion, feather touch vinyl
cloth, stainless steel and Frap lavatory inlays are used to achieve good interior design and
long life of the coach under touch running conditions.
HISTORY OF GROWTH
ICF- India’s premier coach building factory was started in technical collaboration
with Swish Car and Elevator Manufacturing Corporation Ltd., Switzerland. The construction
commenced on March 1952 and the first machine was commissioned by Shri Lal
BagadurShastri, Ministry for Railway, on 2nd October of 1955 a red letter day for ICFwhen
PanditJawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India, flagged off the first coach. The furnishing
division ofICF was inaugurated on 2nd October of 1962.ICF through the years has been
engaged manufacturing many types of coaches year after year. The maximum number of
types ever produced in a year is 32 different types of coaches in the year 2000 to
2001.Starting with humble beginning of about 350 coaches per year; ICF has grown to a
production capacity of more than 1000 coaches annually. In the year 1998-1999 over 1057
coaches were produced.ICF has exported a total of bogies and 425 coaches to Thailand,
Burma, Taiwan, Zambia, Philippines, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, Nigeria, Mozambique and
Bangladesh.

FACTORY AREA

ICF has a factory are of 189.5 acres. Covered area in shops is 47 acres. Township
is spread over 285.5acres. ICF employs more than 13,000 people. The self-contained
townships consist of 3000 residential quarters with schools, auditorium, stadium, recreation
facilities and hospital.
ICF has leveraged its coach building experience of 48 years and 33,000 coaches to
stay at the forefront of innovative coach building and retains its leadership position over the
years.ICF has successfully incorporated cutting edge technologies into the coach building
process.
ICF is committed to improving passenger safety, passenger comfort and
maintainability of the coaches.ICF has a diversified product portfolio into many types of
coaches, all built to exacting customer requirements.
 The main objective of ICF is to manufacture all metal lightweight coaches from
ordinary 2ndclass to most complicated types of coaches i.e., AC and DC, EMUs, AC
Expresses, RajdhaniExpress etc. ICF has entered into export market also supplying coaches
for foreign countries.

ORGANISATION AND DEPARTMENTS

The organization consist of departments of functional basic viz .administration,

personnel, Mechanical, electrical, civil, engineering, finance and accounts, etc.For the
purpose of technical, Financial and cost control the factory has been broadly categorized
under the following Departments.

1. Production shops

2. Service department inside the workshops

3. Service department outside the workshops

4. Stores department

5. General department

AUTHORITY FOR MANUFACTURE

The authority for manufacturing of components or assembly thereof is communicated

through the issue of ‘Route cards’. The route cards contain instruction to shop regarding the
followings.
1. Operation to be carried out in the various shops and load centers in their sequence.
2. The materials and tools to be used and
3.Time required for setting up machines and operations.

THE FUTURE OF THE ORGANIZATION

ICF has completed its 50 years of service to the nation on 2nd October 2005.From a
modest beginning to manufacture just a few third class shells in 1955, ICF is now capable of
producing over 1100 coaches per year and that too in more than 170 varieties.ICF can
perhaps be compared with in the best of coach production facilities and still remains a
pioneer in introducing new types of coaches. In the 151 years of Indian Railways, role of ICF
in its 50 years is certainly a remarkable one and will continue to be so in the years to come.

Products manufactured by ICF, Chennai:

This famous coach factory offers a wide selection of different railway coaches for the Indian
Railways. Indian Railways is the main customer of products manufacturing in this production unit.
Apart from the primarily first and second class railway coaches, the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai
also produces several other railway related products which include-

• Luggage vans
• Brake vans
• Pantry and kitchen cars
• Diesel, electric, and mainline electrical multiple units
• Self propelled coaches,
• Diesel Electric Tower Cars or DETC
• Metro coaches
• Inspection Cars or RA
• Accident Relief Medical Vans or ARMV
• Track Recording Cars
• Fuel Test Cars, and many other products.