Railways minister Dinesh Trivedi laid the foundation stone for the Rs 550 crore factory.
The rail coach factory is being built at Puthusseri West village in Palakkad. The factory is the first factory in the country manufacturing aluminium rail coaches.

The factory, to be built on 429 acres of land, is expected to produce 600 coaches annually.  
The state government has already allocated 239 acres of land.  Trivedi said the coach factory will use the latest technologies. Discussions are on with foreign countries for technical cooperation. A global tender would be floated to zero in on the  technical partners. 

Along with the coach factory, ancillary industrial units will also be set up in the area, Trivedi added. The minister said the Indian Railways is currently trying to upgrade its technology and improve security measures. Women police personnel from the Railways Police Force will be deployed in women’s coaches in trains to boost security for women passengers, he said. 

The inaugural function was marred by protests from different political parties. Kerala’s opposition leader V S Achuthanandan, in whose constituency the factory is coming up, boycotted the function complaining that he had not been sent a proper invitation. 

This apart, members of the Indian Union Muslim League  alleged that their leaders were not sent proper invitations as well.