The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai, one of independent India’s earliest indigenous production units inaugurated by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in October 1955, is on a roll. From manufacturing all-steel, all-welded shells with a capacity of 350 train coaches per year, the production unit, spread over 511 acres, which employs about 10,000 persons, now rolls out over 4,000 coaches annually, catering not just to domestic demand but also to international railway operators.
Arguably the largest coach making facility in the world, the ICF’s Furnishing Division was commissioned in October 1962.
Despite restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICF manufactured 3,100 coaches in 2021-22. This included 31 rakes of Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (248 coaches), 15 Vistadome tourist coaches, 2,639 Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches, 4 air-conditioned new generation rakes for the Kolkata Metro Rail and 50 Diesel Electric Tower Car. In 2019-20, the factory had touched an all-time high of 4,166 coaches and emerged as the largest railway passenger coach manufacturer in the world.
