Vande Bharat Express planned to be manufactured at MCF Raebareli
KS Diwan/ royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh
To augment production, it is planned that Vande Bharat Express train sets too will be manufactured at Modern Coach Factory (Raebareli).It is also planned to manufacture Aluminium coaches at MCF, the first such manufacturing in India. Aluminium coaches have many advantages over stainless steel coaches including light weight, better aesthetics and less cost per year over the life of the coach.
Foundation Stone of Modern Coach Factory (MCF), Raebareli was laid in February 2007. But construction began only in May 2010. The factory was slated to produce 1,000 coaches. However, between 2011-14, it only did minor work on some coaches brought from Kapurthala. Only 375 coaches were thus refurbished between 2011 to 2014 when it should have been manufacturing coaches completely.
Since, 2014 the unit has been a priority area. In July 2014, MCF was declared a Production Unit of Indian Railways. Within a month it started production of fully formed coaches. Since then it has doubled production almost every year: 140 coaches in 2014-15, 285 in 2015-16, 576 in 2016-17, 711 in 2017-18. It is expected to produce 1,422 coaches in 2018-19. 1,220 coaches have already been produced till date.
On 16th December, 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the 900th coach produced this year, and a Humsafar Rake, which was also produced in MCF.
Due to economies of scale, as more coaches are being produced in MCF, per unit cost of production is also coming down. MCF has least cost among all Production Units of Indian Railways for coaches produced. This benefit will be passed on to passengers and will lead to more affordable services.
MCF is a shining example of ‘Make in India’. New concepts such as extensive use of Robotics, automation etc. are being implemented in MCF.
Rs. 480 crore has been sanctioned in Budget 2018-19 for augmentation of production capacity of MCF from 1,000 to around 3,000 coaches per year by 2020-21.
New generation safer LHB coaches are being built in MCF – contributing to railways and passengers safety. Production of Humsafar coaches was also commenced from this factory. MCF has also rolled out smart coaches, providing better safety and passenger amenities as well as enabling predictive maintenance. MEMU, EMU &Metro coaches will also be produced here. In future, coaches for Bullet Train can also be built in MCF if all requirements are met.
MCF will become 1st Rail factory to meet Zero-Energy Mega Factory standards by 2020-21. Solar energy capacity will be raised from 3 MW to 10 MW which will help achieve ‘Energy Neutral’ standards for the unit and the township.
MCF has boosted local economy of Raebareli. It has created employment opportunities for local youth and invigorated industries in vicinity. Goods worth Rs 667 crore were procured from MSMEs in 2018-19. Purchase from local units in Raebareli was less than Rs 1 crore in 2013-14; it has now become Rs. 124 cr in 2018-19. Further, training centers have been developed to provide skill development opportunities to local youth.
