Rail Coach Factory at Kaputhala sets highest ever production record in 2007-08

Kapurthala-based Rail Coach Factory (RCF),a production unit under the ministry of railways, has achieved a record production of 1,480 railway coaches during 2007-08 which is the highest ever production by RCF in any year.

During the year RCF produced 34 types of coaches, which included 96 stainless steel coaches for Rajdhani trains, 133 coaches for eight newly introduced Garib Rath trains and 16 coaches for the science express and a prestigious export order of 24 MG coaches for Senegal Railway, among other categories required by Indian Railways.

RCF has so far manufactured 19,438 coaches, since its inception in 1987, which is almost 50 per cent of the coaching fleet of Indian Railways. In view of growing demand, it has set an even higher target to manufacture 1550 coaches during the year 2008-09.

In order to improve passenger safety during accidents it has introduced crash-safety features making the coaches capable of absorbing high-impact energy in non-passenger area of a coach at either end, while keeping the middle passenger portion safe.RCF produced 108 such coaches during 2007-08.

The stainless steel coaches being produced by RCF are based on German technology and have inherent design features like, superior aesthetics, much better ride quality and low maintenance cost. Due to cost limitations, these coaches had so far been introduced only on high end trains like the Shatabdi and Rajdhani Express.

However, in order to introduce these  features on other mail / express trains, RCF has developed in-house lower-cost variants of the stainless steel coach, cutting costs by about 40 per cent on the German-designed stainless steel coaches, which after successful trials of the prototype have been have led to the planned manufacture 100 such coaches besides the 150 based on the original German design during 2008-09.

RCF is now gearing up to switch over the entire production to these coaches shortly. It says the low-cost variant would have exteriors similar to Rajdhani train and the bogies of these coaches will be provided with air spring suspension for better ride quality. These coaches shall increase seating capacity by 10 per cent.

RCF is also enhancing its coach manufacturing capacity to meet growing demand from the Indian Railways for which it has taken up expansion works like setting up of wheel assembly shop at a cost of Rs68 crore, expansion of existing shell and furnishing shop and new paint shop at a cost of Rs55 crore.

In order to augment the design capabilities, RCF is also setting up a 'centre for excellence in design' at an investment of Rs10 crore, which it expects to complete in the current financial year.