Regular freight ops begin on EDFC between Dadri & Chunar

Prayagraj: With regular freight operations starting on the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) from Dadri near Ghaziabad to Chunar in Mirzapur, almost 60% of the goods trains operations on the main New Delhi-Howrah (up to Chunar) section have switched over to EDFC. This is the country's longest railway line for freight. The move would ensure more space for passenger trains on the busy route.
The DFC (Western Corridor) constructed from the Mumbai side has also been connected to the EDFC at Dadri of Gautam Budh Nagar. At present, goods trains are arriving at EDFC from Western DFC daily at Dadri and the same can operate till Chunar. Along with this, New Bhaupur (Kanpur Dehat) on Delhi route has also been connected with New Bhimsen (23km) at DFC section of Jhansi route. With this, goods trains coming from Jhansi side will be connected to New Bhaupur on the route from New Bhimsen to Delhi. Both the lines have been connected by making a rail bridge in Sachendi Kisan Nagar.
The section of EDFC, spanning from Prayagraj to Kanpur (on the main trunk route) has also been operationalised and joined before Kanpur Ruma to New Bhimsen (25km).
Thus, now freight trains are operating on the 750km long stretch of EDFC from Dadri to Chunar in Mirzapur.
“The goods trains, running on Prayagraj-New Delhi route, will not be going to Kanpur Central as the same would be operated on the bypassed (EDFC) as around 140 odd goods trains are being operated on the EDFC (between Dadri and Chunar) and the entire section between Dadri and Deendayal Upadhyay Junction would be fully operational by the end of June this year as almost 95% of the work on this stretch has been completed,” said chief general manager (EDFC) Om Prakash.
To note, the EDFC route is from Ludhiana (in Punjab) to Dankuni (in West Bengal) and the important stations on this route after Ludhiana are New Meerut, New Khurja, New Tundla, Ikdil, New Bhaupur, New Bhimsen, New Malwa, New Sujatpur, New Manauri, New Karchhana, New Mirzapur, Chunar, PDDU, Durgavati, New Sonnagar, Dhanbad till Dankuni.
A total of six dedicated freight corridors (DFCs) are proposed in the country. These are Western DFC, EDFC, North-South DFC, East-West DFC, East Coast DFC and Southern DFC. All of these DFC’s will connect with each other in due course of time. The length of EDFC is 1875 km. Its state-of-the-art control centre is located at Subedarganj in Prayagraj and is the largest in Asia.