Integral Coach Factory (ICF), a rail manufacturing unit of the Indian Railways, has set its eyes on manufacturing coaches for various metro rail systems. In fact, it wants to grab a decent share in the growing metro coach market, which is currently dominated by multinational companies such as Alstom and Bombardier, a couple of Chinese companies and the state-owned BEML.
Its entry into the metro railway system is taking time as most of them in the country operate in standard gauge (SG). ICF had never built a SG coach as it operates predominantly in the broad gauge space (it, however, supplies coaches to Kolkata metro which operates in broad gauge).
ICF’s earlier attempts to bid for metro rail coaches did not succeed due to lack of prior experience.
Cost-effective rakes
“We would never have it unless we get an order. We are now trying to work with Chennai Metro Rail Ltd to get the first order. Under Make in India, ICF will be favoured with an order,” said Sudhanshu Mani, General Manager, ICF, adding “being our neighbour, Chennai Metro is the first choice”. ICF promises to lower the cost.
“We will bring down price by ₹3-4 crore per coach (each is priced at around ₹10 crore currently) without affecting quality,” he told BusinessLine .
There is a big difference in design for SG (1,435 mm) and BG coaches (1,676 mm). ICF is capable of designing and manufacturing metro coaches, he added.
It will start small by manufacturing one rake, run it on trial and then ramp up. “Future is good with so many metros , and we would like to be part of this metro story,” he said.
The government data says that at present, around 324 km of metro rail is operational in Delhi and NCR, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Jaipur and Mumbai.
Around 550 km is under construction in various cities, including Delhi and NCR, Kolkata, Chennai, Jaipur, Mumbai, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Lucknow.
Around 3,500 metro cars have been ordered by domestic metro operators across 13 cities. Nearly 3,000 metro cars are likely to be procured in the next five years across cities with Mumbai and Delhi ordering major quantities, said sources.
In 2018-19, ICF will manufacture over 3,000 coaches, which will be 500 coaches more than the previous year. ICF’s production of 2,500 coaches last year was higher than the combined numbers of five manufacturing units — Rail Coach Factory at Kapurthala, Modern Coach Factory at Raebareli, Bombardier, Alstom and BEML, he said.
Train 18 project
Mani said intercity Shatabdi trains will be replaced with train sets without locomotive manufactured at ICF under the project called Train 18.
Except a small driver cabin, the entire train will carry passengers. Shatabdi trains have 16 coaches plus two locomotives. However, in Train 18, the two locomotives will make way for coaches. There will be no reversal in locomotive going from one end to another and trains can accelerate much faster, he said.
Project Train 20
And, to replace Rajdhani Express, ICF has project Train 20, which will be a full aluminium body train. The first train will be made abroad, and the rest manufactured at ICF.
“We called for bid once but not successful. We will call bids again. We should have it by the end of 2020. That’s why we call it as Train 20,” he said.
In 2017-18, ICF earned a revenue of around ₹5,500 crore and this year, it will increase to around ₹7,500 crore because of extra 500 coaches to be manufactured and switching over to stainless steel coaches.