Western Dedicated Freight corridor to be fully commissioned by June 2022

January 27, 2021 Rail News

Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister for Railways and Commerce & Industry and Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution on 25 Jan 2021 reviewed the progress of various sections under completion in DFC on both East and West corridors. ‌Railway officials gave inputs about the progress being made in all the sections and also some of the challenges being faced by the Railways in getting work completed in certain sections.

  • Minister said that last mile connectivity and feeder routes need to be completed  simultaneously as well so as to ensure delivery of maximum benefits from DFC. 
  • He said that this aspect of project development needs to be monitored sincerely.
  • The Minister said to ensure Atma Nirbhar Bharat campaign gets a boost, indigenisation of all container traffic on DFCs needs to be promoted on a mission mode. 
  • He said that domestic Industry in India is quite capable of manufacturing such containers.
  • Indian Railways is making dedicated freight corridors to provide exclusive movement on fast speeds for goods trains.
  • In the first phase, DFCCIL is constructing the Western DFC (1504 Route km) and Eastern DFC (1856 route km including PPP section of Sonnagar-Dankuni Section.
  • The EDFC starting from Sahnewal near Ludhiana (Punjab) will pass through the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand to terminate at Dankuni in West Bengal. 
  • The Western Corridor connecting Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) in Mumbai will traverse through the states of UP, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra of WDFC & EDFC (excluding the Sonnagar – Dankuni PPP section) i.e. 2800 route Km will be commissioned by June 2022.
  • Dedicated Freight corridor is being seen as a game changer in Economic Development of India.
  • Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had recently dedicated two sections of DFCCL on Eastern and Western Corridors to the nation. 
  • These are Rewari – Madar section on Western corridor and New Khurja – New Bhaupur section on Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor.

Source: PIB-Press Release | Image Credit: MoR