The Ministry of Railways has taken charge of developing approximately 400 kilometres of the originally proposed Dedicated Freight Corridor, which extends from Sonnagar in Bihar to Andal in West Bengal.
This decision was made due to a shift away from the public-private partnership (PPP) model that was initially planned for this route, with a revised completion target set for March 2024.
As of now, the entire 1,337-kilometre Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) is operational, and around 70 per cent of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) is ready.
The EDFC, completed at a cost of Rs 51,000 crore, is part of the larger DFC project, which encompasses Western India routes and additional supporting infrastructure like multi-modal parks and train sidings, with a total estimated cost of Rs 124,000 crore.
Ravindra Kumar Jain, the Managing Director of the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL), has stated that 95 per cent of the revised routes, totalling 2,843 kilometres across both the EDFC and WDFC, are expected to be ready by March 2024.
Currently, almost 84 per cent of the existing DFC route is already operational.
One section of the DFC route, spanning from Sonnagar to Andal in West Bengal, will now be developed directly by the Ministry of Railways, and this segment has been excluded from the EDFC.
Progress on a 100-kilometre stretch from JNPT to Vaitarana in Mumbai has been slower for various reasons, with around 50 per cent of this stretch expected to be ready by the end of the fiscal year 2024. Jain cited “topographical issues” without specifying further details.
The EDFC is prepared for commissioning, with almost 70 pairs of trains running on it, primarily transporting coal, at an average speed of 50 to 60 kilometres per hour. A trial train run was recently completed between Ludhiana and Khurja in Uttar Pradesh.
Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC)
The EDFC spans 1,337 km from Sahnewal near Ludhiana in Punjab, crossing through Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and terminating at Sonnagar in Bihar.
As part of this freight corridor, the overall 538 km stretch between Sonnagar in Bihar and Dankuni in West Bengal was proposed to be executed under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode, since the beginning.
This stretch was intended to be the apex of the Railways’ monetisation efforts, providing private-sector players access to the corridor’s traffic.
Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC)
The WDFC, connecting Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) in Mumbai. The WDFC, covering a 1,506-kilometre route, connects states such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana.
The western corridor covers a distance of 1,504 km through double line electric (2 x 25 KV) track from JNPT to Dadri via Vadodara-Ahmedabad-Palanpur-Phulera-Rewari. The Western DFC is proposed to join the Eastern DFC at Dadri.
Western DFC would mainly cover Rajasthan (565 km), Maharashtra (177 km), Gujarat (565 km) Haryana (177 km) and about 18 km in Uttar Pradesh.
On the western side, connections between the Dedicated Freight Corridor and various ports in Gujarat, including Kandla, Pipavav, and Mundra, have been completed, reports The Hindu.
These two corridors will connect with each other at Khurja in Uttar Pradesh.