The Indian Railway has big potential to develope goods transportation. In recent years, industrialisation and growing international trade along existing Eastern and Western Routes has led to the demand for additional capacity for rail freight transportation. To develope the freight traffic infratructure, the Government has designed an expansion drive in the form of Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC). In the first phase, two corridors-the Western DFC (1504 route km) and Eastern DFC (Estimated 1856 route km)- with a total length of about 3360 route km were launched. Construction responsibility of DFCs is with Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited.
The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) is a Special Purpose Vehicle set up under the administrative control of Ministry of Railways to undertake planning & development, mobilization of financial resources and construction, maintenance and operation of the Dedicated Freight Corridors.
Objective of DFC
- To create world-class rail infrastructure with advanced technology and knowledge to carry higher throughput per train.
- To improve overall transport efficiency.
- To offer customer guaranteed, faster transit, energy efficient, environment-friendly transport.
- To encourage total supply chain management.
- Reduce the unit cost of transport logistics.
- Increase Rail share in the freight market.
DFCCIL has been set up with 100% equity by Ministry of Railways and registered as a company under the Companies Act 1956 on 30th October, 2006. The cration of the DFCs is due to saturation in rail transportation capacity of the Railways on the Golden Quadrilateral routes. Railways’ network linking the four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Howrah, along with its two diagonals (Delhi-Chennai and Mumbai-Howrah) is commonly known as the Golden Quadrilateral. The Golden Quadrilateral has a total route length of 10,122 km and carries more than 58% of its revenue earning freight traffic. It is to generate additional freight transportation facilities, that the two DFCs are designed.
The Western Dedicated Freight Corridor and Eastern Dedicated Fright Corridor
The Dedicated Freight Corridors have two wings- the Western DFC and the Eastern DFC. The Western Corridor connecting Dadri in NCR Delhi to Mumbai – Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT), will go through six states- Uttar Pradesh, Delhi NCR, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. It is the Western DFC that provides the connectivity of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor.
The Eastern Corridor, starting from Dankuni in West Bengal will pass through the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to terminate at Ludhiana in Punjab.
Traffic on EDFC comprises of coal for the power plants in the northern region of India from Coalfields located in state of Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal, finished steel, food grains, cement, fertilizer, limestone from Rajasthan to steel plants in the east and general goods.
The Western DFC will join Eastern DFC at Dadri.
Both these Dedicated Freight Corridors offer high-speed connectivity for High Axle Load Wagons (25 Tonne) of Double Stacked Container supported by high power locomotives.
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