As railways play a very important role in defence preparedness, the Indian Army successfully validated the efficacy of the Dedicated Freight Corridor(DFC)by running a special train carrying heavy tanks and other weapons.
The trial run was undertaken from Rewari in Haryana to Phulera in Rajasthan in Rajasthan on Monday. The recently developed DFC is aimed at providing faster movement of freight across the country.
Giving details of the special train, army officials said here on Tuesday the intricate and synchronised coordination by the Army with Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL) and Indian Railways will significantly enhance the mobilisation capability of the Armed Forces.
These trials were part of the “Whole of the Nation Approach” for optimising national resources and achieve seamless synergy among various ministries and departments.
Interactions by the Army with all stakeholders including DFCCIL & Indian Railways will now assist in leveraging the DFC and allied infrastructure into the mobilisation matrix of Armed Forces, they said.
Development of infrastructure at certain locations to support mobilisation and trials to validate move of defence owned rolling stock on Roll On-Roll Off (RO-RO) service is being formalised and modalities are being evolved.
These trials herald the first step in this process to pave the way for enhancing the operational readiness of Armed Forces. This initiative would set in place processes to ensure that military requirements are dovetailed in the national infrastructure development at the planning stage itself.
In January this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 306 km Rewari - Madar section of the DFC on the Western corridor. Under the DFC, two corridors are being constructed, the Western DFC of 1,506 km and Eastern DFC of 1,875 km.