With the execution of the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) gaining pace, the railways will soon seek the Union Cabinet’s nod for three more corridors, which, as per a rough estim
With the execution of the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) gaining pace, the railways will soon seek the Union Cabinet’s nod for three more corridors, which, as per a rough estimate, would cost about '3.40 lakh crores. The combined route length of the three additional DFCs — Kolkata-Mumbai, Delhi-Chennai, Kharagpur-Vijaywada — would be 5769 km and would take about eight years for completion once they are approved.
The Western DFC between Dadri and Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP) and Eastern DFC between Ludhiana (Punjab) and Dankuni (Kolkata) are being currently executed. “Seventy per cent of the two DFCs will become operational by March 2019, and by December same year the complete corridors will be operationalised. The 57-km-long Durgawati-Sasaram stretch of the Eastern DFC is under trial, while the 343-km-long Khurja-Kanpur section and 212-km-long Rewari-Bulera section will become operational in March 2018,” said Aadesh Sharma, managing director of DFC Corporation Limited.
He said that a preliminary study by RITES for the engineering and traffic system has been completed on the three additional DFCs whose report is now with the ministry of railways. The projects have been found to be viable with the rate of returns in the range of 22 to 28 per cent on the proposed DFCs.
The three additional DFCs would require an acquisition of 22,000 hectare of land and the total cost, including the interest outgo on the soft loan to be tied up, would come to about '3.40 lakh crore, Mr Sharma said. The East-West Corridor (Kolkata-Mumbai) is 2,327 km long, while the North-South Corridor (Delhi-Chennai) and the East Coast Corridor (Kharagpur-Vijaywada) are 2,328 km and 1,114 km, respectively.
“Once these projects are approved and funds tied up, four years are estimated for procuring the required land and additional four years for completing the project and commissioning them,” said Mr Sharma.
The railways is looking to recover the lost freight share to the road sector with the commissioning of the ongoing Eastern and Western DFC works. “We will be able to run freight trains at a speed of 75 kmph on DFC and even perishable goods could be transported as the journey between Delhi and Mumbai will be completed in 20 hours against the current three days taken by both rail and road transporters,” Mr Sharma said.
