Dedicated Freight Corridors: 1,610 Km Out Of Sanctioned 2,843 Km Complete

More than half of the sanctioned Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) is complete with the progress of work reaching 56.6 per cent.

So far, 1,610 km out of the total sanctioned length of 2,843 km of DFC has been completed.

The Ministry of Railways has taken up construction of two Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) viz. Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) from Ludhiana to Sonnagar (1,337 Km) and the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal (JNPT) to Dadri (1,506 Kms.).

The construction of Dedicated Freight Corridors will offer higher transport output and carrying capacity due to faster transit of freight trains, running of double stack container trains and heavy haul trains.

This would also improve the supply chain for the industries/logistics players located in DFC’s catchment areas leading to growth of EXIM traffic.

The above advantages of DFCs will promote industrial activity in the region by leveraging the industrial corridors and townships being implemented along the DFC route.

Development of New Freight terminals, Multimodal Logistics parks and Inland Container Depots along both Eastern and Western DFC are in different stages of implementation.

Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC)

The WDFC connecting Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) in Mumbai passes through five states of UP, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

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.

Alignment has been generally kept parallel to existing lines except provision of detour at Diva, Surat, Ankleshwar, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad, Palanpur, Phulera and Rewari. However, it is entirely on a new alignment from Rewari to Dadri.

The entire western corridor is being funded through a loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in two phases.

The Dadri-JNPT corridor is being constructed with JICA funding of Rs 38,722 crore (550 billion Yen). This also includes the cost of 200 electric locomotives to be procured by Indian Railways.

Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC)

The EDFC with a route length of 1,337 km starts from Sahnewal near Ludhiana (Punjab) and passes through Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and terminates at Sonnagar in Bihar.

The Eastern DFC is being executed in a phased manner with funding from various sources. According to a DFCCIL press release, the Ludhiana-DDU stretch of 1,200 km is being constructed with World Bank funding of Rs 12,453 crore ($1.775 billion) and 137 km long DDU-Sonnagar stretch shall be constructed with equity funding of Rs 3,679 crore from Indian Railways.

Further, the Sonnagar-Dankuni stretch of 538 km is being planned on PPP mode at an estimated cost of Rs 15,926 crore. The railways has proposed to develop this stretch via a design, finance, build, operate and maintain and transfer (DFBOT) model.