Type GS & WGSCN Coach Services Passenger Coach | Industry Indian Railway Number of employees ≈ 2000 | |
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Founded 30 June 2003 laid by Dr.A.P.J Abdul kalam Headquarters Administrative Building, NH 30A, Harnaut, India Owner East Indian Railway Company | ||
East Central Railway is one of the biggest zones of the Indian Railways, comprising five divisions – Danapur, Mughalsarai, Dhanbad, Sonepur and Samastipur. As per the rules, each coach needs repair after 18 months of running.
Contents
So, Railway factory under ECR is being set up east of Harnaut Railway Station by the Indian Railways. Foundation stone wad laid by then President of India, Honourable A.P.J Abdul Kalam, along with Railway Minister Mr. Nitish Kumar.
History
East Central Railway had no carriage repair workshop and was totally dependent on ER and NER. In order to be self-reliant and improve efficiency, workshop for overhauling of 50 coaches per month has been set up at Harnaut on Bakhtiyarpur-Tilaiya line of Danapur division of East Central Railway.
President APJ Abdul Kalam had laid the foundation stone for the workshop at Harnaut on 30 June 2003, during Nitish Kumar's tenure as railway minister.
Infrastructure
The coach factory will have manpower strength of 1,200, including officers and technical staff.The Harnaut workshop is being developed on about 115 acres of land - workshop on 78 acres and staff quarters on 37 acres.
Constructed at an expenditure of Rs. 328 crore, it has altogether 18 modern repair workshops. This will be one of the most advanced coach factories in the country with the 'double stacked coach maintenance technology' to carry out periodical overhauling of coaches.The workshop is headed by the Chief Workshop manager. There are five departments dealing with various activities such as Mechanical, Electrical, Materials Management, Finance & Accounts, HRD, Audit & Security. It has a total employee strength of approx 5,000.
Main activity
The workshop undertakes the periodic overhauling. According to project in-charge Sunil Kumar, the railways has installed machines, including bogie testing appratus, surface wheel lathe, plasma profile cutting machines and other essential plants required for smooth functioning of the workshop. With an optimum capacity to repair 50 coaches per month, the factory has already started production through its carriage repair shop. "The intermediary overhauling block and periodical overhauling, has been made functional. In the first phase, repair of non AC coaches will be taken up. After augmentation, we will also take up maintenance of the AC coaches," he said.t has so far carried out 139 POH of Non AC ICF Coaches. Its present outturn is 20 coaches per month and target from 1 April 2014 is 30 coaches per month and gradually improving. Most of its infrastructure was completed in 2013 and in the future there is a plan to repair air-conditioned coaches as well.
Location
Workshop is located at near Harnaut railway station on Bakhtiyarpur-Tilaiya line at NH 30A. And 55 km from Patna.