The work on Bhaupur-Khurja (340 km) stretch on the eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor is at full swing and the grounds are being prepared to commission the stretch by December end. It will be followed by the commissioning of the Rewari-Marwar (452 km) stretch on the western DFC in February 2019.
This was stated by the DFCC Managing Director A K Sachan during an inspection of the project by the World Bank (South Asian Region) Vice President Hartwig Schafer at the site visit near Tundla in Uttar Pradesh. Schafer expressed his happiness with the pace of work and termed the DFCC a fantastic project. World Bank is partly funding the dedicated freight corridor project.
“This is a fantastic project and we are happy that World Bank is a little part of this great initiate by Government of India and for the people of India. The innovative technology used by DFCC will help new generation freight movement in the country from point A to point B. The project is climate smart and will reduce carbon emissions and also unclog the roads ultimately adding up to the growth of the country’s economy. I once again appreciate this fantastic project,” Schafer told The Pioneer on board the inspection car.
For the first time in Indian Railways history, DFCC is using most advanced machines — New Track Construction (NTC) machines — which can lay around 2.5 km railway tracks in a day. Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL), a special purpose vehicle of the ministry railways, has been entrusted with the job to develop DFCs in the country, and the eastern DFC and the western DFC have been taken up on a priority basis with funding assistance from the World Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
While the eastern DFC will connect Mughalsarai with Ludhiana, the western DFC will run between Dadri and Jawaharlal Nehru Port. A new freight corridor between Kharagpur in West Bengal and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh named East Coast Freight Corridor, besides the ongoing projects of the Eastern and Western freight corridors has also been announced last month. On Independence Day this year the DFCC conducted a successful train run on the newly-built Ateli-Phulera section of the Western Corridor.
“The DFCC will be making 432 km of the western corridor and 343 km of the eastern corridor operational by the end of the current financial year. Once open, the stretches on the western and the eastern corridors will significantly reduce the travel time between Delhi and Mumbai and Delhi and Howrah, the two most congested rail routes in the country,” Sachan said.
Thereafter work on the Kanpur-Mughalsarai 402 km second phase will be completed by December 2019. Earthwork is also under way on the Ludhiana-Khurja section to first flatten the ground and then compact it before the rails are laid.