Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala organises Vendor Meet on Make in India Initiative

Kapurthala, September 2, 2022: Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala (RCF) today organised a Vendor Meet  as a part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav commemorating the 75 years of Indian Independence. It focused to expand the supplier base of high technology coach items  with special emphasis on indigenization under the Government of India policies of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atamnirbhar Bharat’. 

Emphasis was laid on development of the MSE sector in the meet. Around 120 entrepreneurs from different parts of the region participated in the vendor meet, majority of them being new vendors, while more than 30 vendors from different parts of the country joined the meet through Video conferencing.  Shri Ashesh Agrawal, General Manager/RCF, Senior Officers and  guest delegates were welcomed by Vinod Kumar Langan, Principal Chief Material Manager/HSQ. The meet was conducted by Shri Lalit Kumar Deputy CMM  while Raj Kumar Chief Material Manager/G gave an informative presentation on RCF   apprising vendors about present and future requirements of Indian Railways and items likely to be procured by the RCF elaborating on the requirements on quality and other aspects. 

The meet was also addressed by Braj Mohan Agrawal Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer, Gurpreet Singh Kahlon, Member (SI) , National Board of MSME, Virender Sharma , Director, MSME, DFO (Punjab & Chandigarh), V K Langan, Principal Chief Materials Manager, Simarjot Singh , GM/ Distt. Industries Centre,Kapurthala, Sanjiv Kundra , GM/DIC Jalandhar, G S Kular, President, FICO Ludhiana. Deliberate discussions were held wherein speakers acquainted the vendors with railway procurement system and future activities of the RCF in the meet. They said that Quality is very vital in indigenization. 

Addressing the meet, Ashesh Agrawal, General Manager / RCF said that the vendor meet organized today was a part of Indian Railway’s larger vision of creating a robust environment for development sector in the country. This vision is in line with the nation’s goals of achieving self-reliance across important sectors critical to the economic development of the country. 
A healthy interactive session was also held wherein vendors said that though there are challenges to fast track indigenization due to covid, but still  they are pursuing localization of coach components . They said that industry has the ability to locally manufacture items which are currently imported.  

An exhibition was also organized on the occasion where indigenously manufactured goods used in the coach were displayed. It is worth mentioning that RCF is looking for a strong vendor base as there is a big increase in coach production target during the current fiscal.  RCF is committed to promote Make in India products.