Established in 1955, it is located in Perambur in Chennai and is the largest rail coach manufacturer in the world.

[4] A basic steel shell was designed as a prototype by the Swiss company which would form the basis of coaches to be manufactured in the new facility.

[4] A further extended agreement was signed in 1953 for the Swiss company to supply tools and machines to set up the factory.

[6] The factory was inaugurated by then Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru,[7] and rolled out its first coach on 2 October 1955.

[9] The factory had an installed capacity of 350 units per annum in 1955 with the production increasing to 1458 by 2013–14, 2277 by 2016–17 and reaching the highest at 4166 coaches in 2019–20.

The first export was an order of 47 bogies to Thailand in 1967 and the factory has since exported 875 bogies and coaches to over 13 Afro-Asian countries including Angola, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zambia.