Indian Railways’ Dedicated Freight Corridor project: Why is it important for the national transporter
A 351-km long Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) section between Khurja and Bhaupur in Uttar Pradesh has been inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. Apart from this, PM Modi also dedicated a state-of-the-art Operation Control Centre in Prayagraj to the nation.
The total 2,843-km DFC is known to be the largest Indian Railways’ infrastructure project, being built in independent India. The DFC project comprises of two arms. The newly launched Khurja-Bhaupur section is part of the 1,839-km Eastern DFC. The EDFC starts at Sohnewal, Punjab and ends at Dankuni, in the state of West Bengal. The other arm- the Western DFC is nearly 1,500-km long. The WDFC starts from Dadri, UP and ends at JNPT, Mumbai.
According to an IE report, the 351-km long DFC section stretches between Khurja, which is the 12th stop after Sohnewal in the North, to New Bhaupur, near the city of Kanpur in UP. Other stretches are Sohnewal to Khurja (365 kilometres), Bhaupur to Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay (400 kilometres), then to Sonnagar in WB (137 kilometres), then to Dankuni via Gomoh in the state of Jharkhand (538 kilometres). Also, to connect the Eastern and Western arms of the DFC project, there is a section under construction between Dadri and Khurja.
Approximately 70 per cent of the freight trains that are running on the Indian Railway network at present are slated to shift to the DFCs, leaving the routes open for more passenger trains.
