Make in India – Railways shows the way ! R.C.Acharya
PM’s laudable initiative to ‘Make in India’ in order to provide jobs for millions of unemployed youth whose ranks are swelling at an unbelievable rate of one millon very year has been the ‘mantra’ which Railways had already adopted over last 6 decades
.Since late 19th century, a 5% return on their investment guranteed by the then government in power had spurred more than a dozen companies, all incorporated in UK, to set up shop to build Railways in India, resulting in a 62,000 kms network of steel by the time Inida attained independence.
Understandably it was the British industries which were the main benificiary, with order books full supplying steel rails, locomotives, coaches, wagons, signalling system and all that went into running a full fledged Railway. Fortunately at the inception itself ‘Broad’ gauge, wider than the U.K.’s ‘Standard’ gauge was adopted to provide stability to withstand India’s monsoon gale force winds.
This proved to be a blessing in diguise providing a much higher level of throughput. For instance the suburban trains in Mumbai are a good metre wider with each coach capable of carrying nearly 4500 passengers as against only 1500 in a DMRC metro coach.
Soon after independence the government lost no time in setting up a steam locomotive manufacturing facility at Mihijam in 1950, the first of a series of such facilities to make in India all the major items of hardware required by Railways.
A brain child of Nehru and Bidhan Chandra Roy, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal who made available vast tracts of non-arable land for the project, it provided jobs to thousands of refugees who had streamed across the border during the partition.
This first collaborative venture in 1950 with North British Locomotive of UK was soon followed in 1955 by one with Swiss Car & Elevator Manufacturing Co., to manufacture Railway Coaches at Integral Coach Factory (ICF) at Perambur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 
in 1961 with American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of U.S.A. to manufacture Diesel Locomotives at DLW (Diesel Locomotive Works) at Varanasi, UP.
A second plant viz. RCF (Rail Coach Factory) came up at Kapurthala in 1984, to manufacture high speed coaches in collaboration with Linke Hoffman Busch of West Germany. 
In order to meet the growing needs for wheels and axles, a WAF (Wheel Axle Factory) was set up at Yellahanka, Bengaluru in collaboration with Amsted Industries of U.S.A. in 1984, while DMW (Diesel Maintenance Works) built in 1982 at Patiala, Punjab, manufactures spares for the growing fleet of Diesel locomotives, and similar one for Electric locos has recently been commissioned at Dankuni, in West Bengal. RSK (Rail Spring Karkhana) set up in 1986, at Sithouli near Gwalior with West German aid (KFW), to manufacture coil springs for the wagon and passenger coach bogies completes the list of 8 Production units.
This initiative for ‘Make in India’ has provided an opportunity to India’s giants in the Public sector viz. BHEL, SAIL, and private sector big guns such as Kirloskars, Tata Timken, NEI, ABB , Siemens, Mukand etc. to enter in a long term partnership with Railways to sustain its growth all the while saving the nation billons of dollars in foreign exchange by keeping imports at a minimal level.
Apart from meeting thc needs of Railways these facilties have also been busy exporting earning precious foreign exchange with ICF setting the pace. It sent first such consignment of 47 Bogies to Thailand in 1967 and since then in all 361 bogies and 447 coaches have been exported to 13 Afro-Asian countries. The last order for Srilanka was for a whopping Rs.120 cores for supplying 20 rakes of 6 broad gauge coach DEMUs ( Diesel Multiple Units ) for the commuter traffic around Colombo.
With a fully computerised Design & Development Cell equipped with state-of-the-art computer designing facilities and testing equipment, both for coach components and raw materials, strain gauge testing and squeeze test procedures for prototypes before commencement of series production, and a “ISO.9001” certificate for its quality systems from M/s. TUV, Germany to boot, ICF is also poised to enter the export market in a big way !
Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) , Varanasi equipped with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and sophisticated design and proto-type testing capabilities, has also been in the export business for the last 4 decades chalking up quite a few success stories against stiff global competition. Located in PM’s own constituency it has a unique opportunity to be Railway’s flag bearer in making a major impact in India’s export drive and place Varanasi firmly on World’s Rail Technology map. 
Starting with a modest order for 15 of 1350 hp YDM4 type Meter Gauge locomotives for Tanzania executed through RITES ( Rail India Techno-Economic Services ) an in-house consultancy arm in 1975, it has supplied 137 locomotives so far to no less than 11 Afro-Asian countries, the last order of 26 nos. of 3100 hp Broad gauge locomotives being to Bangladesh in 2012-14.
Latest in the series of ‘Make in India’ initiatives have been a plant set up at Rae-Barielly in UP at a cost of Rs.1500 crorers for making 500 LHB coaches a year. Ingurated in 2012 it has already reached an utput of 140 coaches in 2014-15.
A fully automated Rail Wheel Plant plant at Bela, Chapra, Bihar, duplicating the facility at Yellahanka of Bengaluru, celebrated its first foundation day on 1st Aug 2014. Trial production commenced in Dec 2012 and over 2000 wheel sets have been dispatched till date. Spread over about 300 acres it was built at a cost of about Rs. 1500 crores by L&T as a EPC contract and has a capacity of churning out 100,000 wheels discs annually.
Under Suresh Pabhu’s prgamatic leadership, Railways is now engaged in the process of setting up two more facilities, one for 1000 Electric locomotives at Madhepura and another for 1000 high horse power Diesel locomotives at Marhorwa, both to be supplied over next 10 years, under FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) giving a major boost to Narendra Modi’s Made In India Plans.
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