Covid-19: Railways' Integral Coach Factory eyes tie-up to make ventilators

It will offer its component-making and assembling capacity to ramp up manufacturing of ventilators, which are critical in the battle against Covid-19

The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) is looking for a collaboration to manufacture ventilators at its facility in Chennai. Southern Railway has already started making hand sanitizers, masks, and aprons amid Coronavirus pandemic.

ICF, a production unit under the Ministry of Railways, has invited for expression of interest (EOI) and said it is exploring the possibility of collaborating with established ventilator manufacturers. It will offer its component-making and assembling capacity to ramp up manufacturing of ventilators, in order to increase the availability of these devices which are critical in the battle against Covid-19.

ICF manufactures mainline and self-propelled coaches for Indian Railways. The unit has developed and manufactured high-tech trains including Vande Bharat Express.

The Railway Board had directed to production units and workshops to use their manufacturing facilities to manufacture essential medical items Southern Railway has put its team working on this task.

Perambur Loco Works has taken the initiative of making the hand sanitizers for its use in  railway offices and railway hospitals.

The materials that are gone into making this in-house product are iso propyl alcohol, Hydrogen Peroxide, Glycerol and Distilled Water. Initially 5 litres have been prepared.

Similarly Goldern Rock Workshop, Tiruchirappalli has also produced  in-house 10 litres of hand sanitizers. The average cost of making comes to only Rs 570 per litre which is lot cheaper than what is sold in the market. Golden Rock workshop has handed over the material to Medical department for making the hand sanitizers in its lab and it will soon be making 60 cots as required by the Medical branch.

Perambur Carriage works has taken the initiative of making 250 masks till date. 100 masks have been distributed to Chennai division for the use of running staff working goods trains. 150 masks handed over to Railway hospital, Perambur.

This mask is made of white cotton cloth and is of single layer with elastic ear band. This can be reused after thorough wash. Besides it has produced 45 nos of aprons and handed over it to Railway hospital at Perambur. They are in the process of making 50 numbers of cots in the next ten days using the available material in the workshop. This workshop also has plans to manufacture three layer masks.

Electric Locoshed, Erode has produced 200 litres of hand sanitizers so far for consumption in offices, hospitals in the jurisdiction of Salem Division. Electric Loco shed at Arakkonam, Diesel loco shed at Ernakulam  and medical branch of Trivandrum division have also contributed in making hand sanitizers for their internal usage.

Coaching Depot in Basin bridge has also come up with their capacity to make 50 masks on a daily basis utilizing the available material and allowing their lady staff to work from home. This will be made out of cotton cloth in single layer. This can be reused after wash. This masks will be used for railway employees and in railway hospitals.