Goods movement to be faster once work is completed

The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd. (DFCCIL) on Friday opened the more than 300-km section between Rewari, Haryana to Madar, Rajasthan, for commercial trial runs. This is the first section to be opened on the under-construction 1,500-km western freight corridor.

The newly opened section — covering a total of 664 track km — has been constructed at a cost of almost ₹4,000 crore (excluding land charges). “The opening of this stretch will benefit various industries in Rewari, Manesar, Narnaul, Phulera and Kishangarh areas of Rajasthan and Haryana. In addition, Concor’s container depot at Kathuwas will also come on the DFC map and get advantage in terms of faster throughput,” said Anurag Sachan, MD, DFCCIL.

Mr. Sachan added that by March 2020, over 650 km of the section between Rewari and Palanpur in Gujarat will be opened for commercial operations. “This will result in immediate relief for both freight and passenger movements via Indian Railways. We are on track to open the corridor from Rewari to Palanpur section by March, 2020… this will provide connectivity to three ports in Gujarat — Kandla, Mundra and Pipavav.”

Once the section is opened for commercial operations, about 80% of the freight train movements will be shifted to the dedicated corridor, resulting in a much faster movement of goods trains, vacating track space for passenger trains. “With dedicated corridor and advanced wagons, one train will be able to carry a load of about 13,000 tonnes, which is equal to what 1,300 trucks would carry,” he said.

The 1,504-km western freight corridor begins at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh and stretches till the country’s largest container port — Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, near Mumbai — passing through U.P., Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

DFCCIL is a special purpose vehicle tasked with planning and completion of 3,306 kms of Dedicated Freight Corridors, consisting of western freight corridor and eastern freight corridor (1,856 kms). The total project cost is estimated at over ₹81,000 crore.

(The writer was in Rajasthan at the

invitation of the DFCCIL)