The ICF also aims to cross the 5000 mark in coach production, next year.

Indian Railways looks to beat its own coach production record! The Integral Coach Factory (ICF), in Chennai, has beaten its last year’s coach production target. The coach manufacturing factory of Indian Railways has recently beaten its last year’s outturn of 3,262 coaches in just a period of 9 months and 13 days. Not only that, the ICF is now on its way to cross 4,000 mark by March 2020. Last year, ICF was declared the world’s largest coach factory and now the factory is set to beat its own record by crossing the 4000 mark, which was considered unthinkable a year ago. Moreover, the ICF also aims to cross the 5000 mark in coach production, next year.

Last month, it was reported that the ICF has turned out its 3000th coach of the year in less than a period of nine months. In order to achieve this target, the coach manufacturing factory required less number of working days – from 289 days in the last financial year to 215 days in the current financial year. With this, the factory had registered an overall reduction of 25.6 per cent in the total number of working days for the same production numbers. Earlier, it was also reported that the factory has registered a record by rolling out as many as 2,222 Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches in just 8 months and 11 days in the current financial year.

The LHB coaches are based on German technology and are considered to be safer as well as better than ICF-design coaches. Unlike ICF-design coaches, the LHB coaches boast higher carrying capacity, have higher speed potential, have increased codal life and also have better safety features. This type of coach is also lighter in weight. Additionally, the LHB coaches support the anti-climbing feature, which prevents them from getting piled up during railway accidents.

In a bid to provide better safety and more comfortable journeys to passengers, Piyush Goyal chaired Railway Ministry has completely stopped the production of ICF-design coaches. Thus, from April 2018, only LHB coaches are being produced by the Production Units of Indian Railways.