Railways To Throw Open 800 Km Of Dedicated Freight Corridor By 2018-End

As many as 800 km of Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) is set to open by the end of December 2018, according to officials in the Railway Ministry, reports Firstpost.

"The railways is all set to open the 200-km Khurja-Bhadan section of the Eastern DFC, both in Uttar Pradesh, by the end of November, while by the end of December, we will complete the 300-km stretch of the Western DFC between Rewari (Haryana)-Madar (Rajasthan)," a senior Railway Ministry official was quoted by Firstpost as saying.

The 190-km Ateli-Phulera section on the Western DFC has 10 major bridges and viaducts, 127 minor bridges, one railway overbridge, 118 road under-bridges and six stations.

The 143-km section of Bhadan-Bhaupur in Uttar Pradesh on the Eastern DFC will be completed by January 2019 and the 128 km section of Madar-Marwar in Rajasthan on the Western DFC will be commissioned by February 2019.

The Bhaupur-Mughalsarai section of the Eastern DFC will be completed by August 2019, and the Sonenagar (Bihar)-Mughalsarai (Uttar Pradesh) section of the same stretch will be completed by October 2019, the official added.

He said that railways was optimistic that by the time of its commissioning in March 2020, it would fully electrify the entire DFC.

The Rs 81,459-crore project received the Union Cabinet's nod in 2006 and has since missed several deadlines due to multiple reasons, including procedural errors, land acquisition, environment clearance and other related issues.

Passing through nine states and 60 districts, the project will have 48 stations and junctions along the Western DFC and 58 stations on the Eastern DFC.

The Western DFC will cover 1,504 km from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust near Navi Mumbai to Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, traversing through Vadodara-Ahmedabad-Palanpur-Phulera-Rewari.

The Eastern DFC covers 1,856 km from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni near Kolkata in West Bengal, and will cover the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.

The DFC, once completed, is expected to boost the Indian economy with an increased number of freight trains in eastern and western sectors of the country.