Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) is one of the largest rail infrastructure projects undertaken by the Government of India. DFCCIL has been set up as a special purpose vehicle to undertake planning, development, mobilization of financial resources, construction, maintenance and operation of Dedicated Freight Corridors. In the first phase, the organisation is constructing the Western DFC (1504 Route km) and Eastern DFC (1856 route km) spanning a total length of 3360 route km.
Dedicated Freight Corridor
Indian Railways is building dedicated freight corridors to enable the government to run freight trains as per a time schedule. Currently, freight trains do not get priority over passenger trains. Once completed, at least 70% of the freight trains will be transferred on the DFCCIL network which will help in timely movement of cargo. The Eastern & western dedicated freight corridors entail an investment of $12 billion, with the World Bank and JICA partly funding the project with around $1.86 bn and $5.2 bn respectively.
DFCCIL will be monitoring the movement of freight trains at the Operations Control Centre in Prayagraj, which is the second largest in the world after Shanghai, China. Private containers will also be allowed to use the freight corridor but they have to pay track usage charges. DFC consists of the 1,839-km long Eastern DFC from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni near Kolkata, and the 1483-km long Western DFC, connecting the national capital, Delhi and its economic hub Mumbai. As per the latest data provided by DFCCIL, the corporation has completed 56% of its contractual work on the Western DFC and 60% work on the Eastern DFC. Also, 99% of the required land has been acquired.
In a boost to the railways’ efforts to use technology to ease infrastructure work, for the first time in India, the entire track laying of the Dedicated Freight Corridor is being done through the New Track Construction (NTC) machine. It has the capacity to lay 1.5km track per day, ensuring safety, precision and reliability. The use of NTC brings substantial ease and efficiency in track construction with integrated logistic arrangements for mechanised handling, movement and laying of heavy track components. The machine provides assembly line kind of laying with high speed and accuracy. Previously, without this machine a maximum of 150-200 metres of track could have been laid in an eight-hour shift. Further, the machines achieve high initial quality in track laying which determines its performance and service life.
