No question of closing down Integral Coach Factory, says Piyush Goyal

Minister hails the organisation for the Vande Bharat Express, India's first indigenously made semi-high-speed train

The Ministry of Railways has said that it doesn't intend to close the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai.

Responding to DMK Member P Wilson's question on whether there is any such proposal, Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal said, there is no question of closing the ICF.

"We are very proud of the achievements of the ICF. Theire engineers and their workers made Vande Bharat, the first semi-high-speed train that India has ever made in 168-year Railway history. It is a jewel in the crown and there is every effort to grow, expand and modernise that company."

The Integral Coach Factory is one of the earliest production units of independent India. It was inaugurated by the country's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, in October 1955.

The furnishing division was inaugurated in 1962 and the production of fully-furnished coaches steadily increased over the years. Spread over nearly 511 acres, ICF has about 10,408 employees and churns out more than 2,000 coaches every year, including the conventional and self-propelled variants.

ICF is capable of manufacturing many types simultaneously and adds new variants to the product mix every year. The factory has invented and experimented with new types of coaches such as self-propelled or special variants. It has produced 58,554 coaches since inception in 500-plus different designs.

ICF, a rail manufacturing unit of the Indian Railways, has set its eyes on manufacturing coaches for various metro rail systems, a segment dominated by state-owned BEML and multinational firms such as Alstom and Bombardier. It earned a revenue of Rs 5,500 crore in 2017-18.