The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Looking to meet challenges at ICF

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 23, 2007
ePaper

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Looking to meet challenges at ICF

S. Vythianathan

Sabita Gopal took over as General Manager of ICF recently

Sabita Gopal

Chennai: Sabita Gopal entered the services as an Indian Railway Accounts Officer in 1972.

Though born in Madurai, her formative years were spent in the northern parts of the country. In her 35 years of service, Ms. Sabita has served the Indian Railways in different regions in various capacities.

In all the organisations, the basic issue of the workers, according to her, were the same. So, she does not foresee any difficulty in managing the ICF, which, she said, had a disciplined work force. She is confident that she could successfully manage the country’s largest rail coach unit, as her previous postings had taught her all aspects of the Railways, including production units. In fact, she was associated with preparing the estimate of detailed projects during the launching stage of the Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala.

As it is the first time that she is being posted as the head of a manufacturing unit, she is trying to learn more about the working of the ICF, especially the aspect of coach manufacturing by going through documents and visiting the various wings of the factory. During the visits, she interacts with workers to get firsthand information about their work. This, she said, would help her understand the ground situation.

The next two years will be crucial for ICF, according to Ms. Sabita. The production capacity of the unit is being increased to 1,500 coaches a year, and the unit is soon to manufacture steel body coaches. Already, ICF had despatched prototype AC/DC coaches to the Mumbai suburban system and is awaiting feedback for further improvement of the coaches.

“The unit is fully geared up to meet these challenging tasks. I have to monitor them with the help of senior officials, who are all specialists in their fields,” she says.

She thanks her family for the success. “Without their support, I would not have been successful in my career.”

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu

News Update

Stories in this Section