Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday inaugurated the 351-km New Khurja — New Bhaupur section of the eastern dedicated rail freight corridor, and the operation control centre (OCC) located at Prayagraj, from where trains are tracked.
Mango farmers of Malihabad, marble traders of Rajasthan, car makers from Faridabad region, leather trade from Kanpur and Agra are likely to benefit from the freight corridor.
Consumers, industry, farmers, traders and all other stakeholders will benefit from the freight corridor, the Prime Minister said and urged people to refrain from damaging infrastructure. A trend that is seen during protests is that infrastructure is damaged, he said. “While exercising the democratic right, we should not forget responsibilities,” the Prime Minister said. “Infrastructure building involves contribution of citizens — poor and middle class, infrastructure does not belong to any politician, or political party, or government,” he added. Infrastructure is the key to development of the nation, said the Prime Minister.
Almost 1.5-km long train can run on this train track, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said earlier adding the project is “dedicated for country”.
The 351-km section is situated in Uttar Pradesh. The section will also open new opportunity for the local industries such as aluminium industry (Pukhrayan region of Kanpur Dehat district), dairy sector (Auraiya district), textile production/block printing (Etawah district), glassware industry (Firozabad district), pottery products (Khurja of Bulandshahr district), asafoetida or ‘hing’ production (Hathras district) and locks and hardware (Aligarh district), said a release.
To decongest mainline
The section, that will decongest the existing Kanpur-Delhi main line and will enable the Railways to run faster trains, is built by Tata Projects Ltd. The OCC at Prayagraj will act as the command centre for the entire route length of the EDFC. The OCC is one of the largest structures of its type globally.
The Eastern DFC is a 1,856-km stretch starting from Sahnewal near Ludhiana to Dankuni in West Bengal. The Western DFC with a length of 1,504 km is from JN Port (Mumbai) to Dadri.
The dedicated freight corridor (DFC) is one of the largest rail infrastructure projects undertaken by the Governmentwith an overall cost of ₹81,459 crore.