Railways completes 194 km of eastern dedicated freight corridor

Kanpur, Nov 30 (IANS) The railways on Friday said it has completed the 194-km section from Bhadan to Khurja in Uttar Pradesh of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC).

A senior railway ministry official said that a trial run of freight train on this newly completed section was done on Friday in the presence of Anurag Sachan, MD. 

According to the railway officials, the 194-km section located between Delhi and Kanpur section, the Bhadan-Khurja stretch has six stations and a total of 249 bridges consisting of 17 major, 137 minor, 92 Rail Under Bridges (RUB) and 3 Rail Fly Overs (RFOs). 

Freight trains on Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation Limited (DFCCIL) will be capable for attaining speeds of 100 kmph as against the current maximum speed of 75 km/h on Indian Railway network.

The official said that on Thursday, Chairman Railway Board Ashwani Lohani also carried out an extensive inspection of the newly laid EDFC section and reviewed the preparedness alongwith Sachan and many other senior railway officials. 

Lohani during inspection expressed satisfaction on the timely completion of the section and reposed firm assurance that consistency of progress will be maintained in achieving the prospective targets of completion of other sections also. 

The official also said that railways will also complete the 300-km stretch of the Western DFC between Rewari (Haryana)-Madar (Rajasthan) by the end of December.

Earlier in August this year, the railways opened the 190-km Ateli (Haryana)-Phulera (Rajasthan) section of the Western DFC earlier this year.

The 190-km section of the Ateli-Phulera on the Western DFC has 10 viaducts and major bridges, 127 minor bridges, one railway overbridge, 118 road under-bridges and six stations.

According to the official, railways is optimistic that the entire DFC would be fully electrified by the time of its commissioning in March 2020.

The Rs 81,459-crore project had obtained the Union Cabinet's green signal way back in 2006 and has since missed several completion deadlines due to various reasons, including procedural wrangles, land acquisition, environment clearances and other related issues.

Passing through nine states and 60 districts, the project will have 48 stations and junctions along the Western DFC and 58 on the Eastern DFC.

While the Western DFC will cover 1,504 km from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust near Navi Mumbai to Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, traversing through Vadodara-Ahmedabad-Palanpur-Phulera-Rewari, the Eastern DFC covers 1,856 km from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni, near Kolkata in West Bengal, and will traverse the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.

The DFC, once completed, is expected to complement the future of the Indian economy with an increased number of freight trains in eastern and western sectors of the country.