Integral Coach Factory (ICF), India’s largest producer of train cars, now wants to explore other opportunities in the market — production of coaches for Metro trains, with more cities set to adopt the new-age transport system.
Metro trains are the future mode of transportation in the country with cities that have more than 10 lakh population vying with each other to build the system that offers faster and affordable travel.
The Union Urban Development Ministry and state governments have tied up to form joint ventures to implement metro train systems in cities like New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi, Jaipur and Lucknow.
“We want to tap the market for metro coaches. The entire country knows we are the best in manufacturing train coaches, and we would like to prove our mettle in producing coaches for metro trains as well. We are confident of excelling in this as well,” Sudhanshu Mani, General Manager of Chennai-based ICF, told DH.
Mani said the ICF was hoping to get orders for manufacturing metro coaches under the government’s ambitious ‘Make in India’ programme.
Currently, metro transport corporations in India buy trains from Bombardier, Alstom and Rotem, and ICF is confident of reducing the price of one coach by at least Rs 4 crore, if it is manufactured indigenously.
Mani concedes that metro corporations are hesitant to give orders to ICF since the PSU has no experience in building coaches for standard gauge trains.
While metro trains run on standard gauge, normal trains run on broad gauge tracks. However, the top official says that ICF can prove that it can build a standard gauge train as well, only if it is given an order or opportunity by some firm. Since ICF operates out of Chennai, Mani said they have approached the Chennai Metro Rail Corporation (CMRL) for manufacturing the coaches.