CHENNAI: Roop Narayan Sunkar, member (infrastructure) of Railway Board on Thursday visited the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) and discussed the progress of ongoing projects.

Mr Sunkar, accompanied by B G Mallya, general manager of ICF, also visited the ICF workshops and inspected the production of Vande Bharat Express coaches and other coaches. The Railway Board member who appreciated the workmanship and skills of ICF staff engaged in rolling out coaches for prestigious trains such as Vande Bharat express, is understood to have discussed the progress of the first sleeper version Vande Bharat to be rolled out by the premier coaching manufacturing facility of the Indian Railways.

ICF officers, who explained the raw material sourcing and manufacture for the Vande Bharat, were understood to have apprised the railway board member about the status of bogie manufacture for the VB trains.

ICF has been sourcing the high-quality bogies of the Vande Bharat, the country's first indigenous semi-high speed train, from war torn Ukraine through vendors supplying electrical components. ICF has been working on domestic production of the bogies to reduce reliance on imports and also further cut down the cost of VB production.