As the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) is striving to complete the ambitious freight corridor project by the end of 2022, Railway Board Chairman V.K. Yadav and Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar inspected the new track construction work on the Khurja-Dadri section of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) on Wednesday.
Accompanied by DFCCIL Managing Director Anurag Sachan, they visited the new track construction machine working site at Wair detour near Khurja in UP.
The Khurja-Dadri section will link the Eastern and the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC). Heavy and long haul freight trains can run at 100 mph on the section, ensuring seamless and fast logistics movement.
The DFCCIL is using new track construction machines for laying the track across the EDFC and the WDFC. The machine can lay 1.5 km track a day, ensuring all safety, precision, and reliability.
According to the DFCCIL officials, seven new track construction machines are being deployed along the DFC alignment with four in the EDFC and three in the WDFC.
The Railway Board Chairman appreciated the work of the DFC collective and contractors and expressed confidence at the DFCCIL achieving the deadlines.
Officials said Kumar also appreciated the DFCCIL. He was impressed by the speedy implementation of the project that will act as a crucial multiplier for the nation’s economy.
The 3,373 km DFC, a flagship project of the railways, aims to augment rail transport capacity to meet the growing requirement of movement of goods by segregating freight from passenger traffic.
The WDFC runs from the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai to Tughlakabad and Dadri near Delhi and will cater largely to the container transport requirements between the existing and emerging ports in Maharashtra, Gujarat and the northern hinterland.
The 1,839 km EDFC runs from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni near Kolkata. It could be extended to serve the new deep-sea port, proposed in the Kolkata area, and will largely handle coal and steel traffic.
The DFCCIL plans to run freight trains at 100 mph against the current 75 kmph. It also plans to increase the average speed of the freight trains from 26 kmph to 70 kmph on the DFC.
