25th August 2018.
From dawn to dusk we use many travel services like cars,
Trains, airplanes, etc. for our commutation. Each service has its own story and
many people's labor, and efforts are behind that. It will be a mixture of happiness
and sorrow, to earn something to survive. The Integral Coach Factory short called ICF
manufactures coaches for the Indian Railways,
in which we used to travel, for work, to enjoy holidays, to go to distant places, etc,.
The ICF, spread over 473 acres was established in
1952 and production was inaugurated on 2nd October 1955, Gandhi
Jayanthi Day by Jawaharlal Nehru, and the latter furnishing division was inaugurated
on 2nd October 1962. So far ICF has manufactured 54131 coaches,
since inception in approximately 500 designs. ICF also manufactures Stainless Steel
(SS407) coaches and so far it has produced 1162 SS coaches with a life span of
40 years. Its latest designs are 160
km/ hour “Train 18” and “Train 20”. Apart from internal needs of Coaches for
Indian Railways & Metro Railways, exports to 13 foreign countries including
Sri Lanka. ICF Completed its 60 years of service and celebrated its Diamond Jubilee
in 2015. A total of 10485 employees are on roll, of which 1218 are female employees.
ICF has two divisions namely Shell and Furnishing.
In the shell division, only shells are manufactured and in the furnishing division
accessories like berths, electrical fittings, and toilets are added. The factory is maintained
with good ventilation, lighting, and neatness. Mural paintings are done on the
factory walls which changes the factory atmosphere. Some of the mural paintings
are done by the employees and their Children. Footpaths are painted with
green. The new divisions are inaugurated by one of the employees and the top performer
of the month is rewarded and a photo is displayed in the Administrative block. ICF
takes care of its employees with a colony to live in, a hospital, a park, a playground, a swimming pool, and recreation facilities.
About our visit…on ”Mahila Sakthi”
After Mr Sudhanshu Mani took over as General
manager, there was a sea of positive changes in the working as well as in the employer
and employee relationship in ICF. One such change was the introduction of the “Mahila Sakthi”, team. As of
date, 137 female employees are working in the Mahila Sakthi team. They were given in-house training to do similar jobs that the men were doing in two shifts.
At present, the Mahila Sakthi team is engaged in the Manufacturing of berths and electrical wiring of AC and non-ac coaches ( using 1.5 sq mm to 150 sq mm copper wires with
a color code of Red, Yellow, Blue, brown, black, and green.), Repairing and
rewinding of fan motors, the rectification of Welding machines, Welding of
Stainless Steel ( SS407 and the sheet thickness ranges from 2 mm to 8 mm ) Shell
side walls ( in two lengths ie 10 meters and 11 meters ), which includes preparation, Hardware Stores – in automated storage
and retrieval system - ( receipt, inspection, store and issue with code numbers) and Testing of meters. The Mahila Sakthi team works with a target of 12 coaches per month, the same target given to the men workers.
Even though the 25th Saturday was not a working day for the
Mahila Sakthi team, they were asked to work during our Visit and explained
their job. ICF had arranged a bus to pick us up from the Museum, Transport inside the
factory, and drop us at the starting point. To the top of all Mr Sudhanshu Mani,
General Manager of ICF and Finance Head met us in the conference room and
interacted with us was an unforgettable experience. I extend my sincere thanks to Mr. Sudhanshu Mani
GM, Finance Head Mam, Hema Ramesh APO, and Mrs. Nivedita Louis for her one-month
hard effort to get permission and arrange this Heritage Visit. Thanks..ma.
Welding
Manufacturing of
berths
Bunching of electrical wires for the coaches
At Store
Grinding /Finishing and Welding
Welding
The Mahila team in the winding shop
The best performer of the month is displayed
The photos of
employees are displayed in the Administrative block
The ICF Family tree
Conference room
General Manager Sudhanshu Mani interacts with us
Resurgence Road leading to the furnishing division was created in remembrance of
the Vardha cyclone, which uprooted many trees in the ICF premises and damaged
many structures
Rail Museum
A sculpture using the scrap material made by the employees
A sculpture using the scrap
material made by the employee - Yazhini and on the
back of the retired first-class rail coach
of Blue Mountain railway
A sculpture using the scrap
material made by the employees
The retired in
1965. meter gauge coach which ran between the beach to Chengalpattu
---OM SHIVAYA NAMA---
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