Freight operations on the Indian Railways are set to witness a paradigm shift with the stage-wise completion of its 2 dedicated freight corridors, the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) and the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC), over the next 4 years, beginning 2017-18. Let’s have some updates from Ministry of Railway!

What are the objectives of Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs)?

• To create world-class rail infrastructure with advanced technology and knowledge to carry higher throughput per train.
• To improve overall transport efficiency.
• To offer customer guaranteed, faster transit, energy efficient, environment-friendly transport.
• To encourage total supply chain management.
• Increase Rail share in the freight market.

What’s the mandate for DFCs?

• Effective independence in decision-making and functions with a market focus and business orientation.
• DFCs will provide non-discriminatory access to freight trains belonging to Indian Railways and other qualified operators.
• A Complementing Indian Railways for increasing the Rail share.

So, that’s why Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) come into picture?

• Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) is a Special Purpose Vehicle set up under the administrative control of Ministry of Railways.
• To undertake planning & development, mobilization of financial resources and construction, maintenance and operation of the DFCs.
• DFCCIL has been set up with 100% equity by Ministry of Railways and registered as a company under the Companies Act 1956 on 30th October, 2006.

Did you know about Golden Quadrilateral ?

• The genesis of the Dedicated Freight Corridor is due to saturation in rail transportation capacity of Indian Railways on the Golden Quadrilateral.
• The Indian Railways’ network linking the 4 metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Howrah, along with its 2 diagonals (Delhi-Chennai and Mumbai-Howrah) commonly known as the Golden Quadrilateral.
• Adding up to a total route length of 10,122 km, carries more than 58% of its revenue earning freight traffic.

What are the reasons that led to demand for additional capacity for rail freight transportation?

• Growing international trade along existing Eastern and Western Routes.
• In the first phase, the Government of India has approved construction of two corridors-the Western DFC (1504 route km) and Eastern DFC (Estimated 1856 route km)- spanning a total length of about 3360 route km.
• The Eastern Corridor, starting from Dankuni in West Bengal will pass through the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to terminate at Ludhiana in Punjab.
• The Western Corridor connecting Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Mumbai – Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT), will traverse through NCR and the states of Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

How will these corridors helps in Industrial Growth?

Multi Modal Logistic Hubs

• The DFC network would attract setting up of Multimodal Logistics Parks along the corridor to facilitate value addition including packaging, retailing, labeling, pelletizing, transportation etc.
• The last mile connectivity in terms of door to door services will be provided to the customers by 3PL service providers.

Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) & Amritsar-Delhi-Kolkata Industrial Corridor (ADKIC)

• Impact of DFCCIL is visible as a driver of Industrial Growth with planning and development of DMIC & ADKIC along the DFC.
• Industrial Corridors have been planned using the backbone of the DFC.
•  Industrial Corridor will get benefits from the World-Class Rail Infrastructure of the DFC.
• The traffic originating from the Industrialized Corridor will contribute significantly to traffic on the DFC.

Let’s see progress of these 2 significant corridors –

Western Corridor

• Western Corridor comprising of estimated 1504 km of a double line track from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust to Dadri via Vadodara-Sanand-Palanpur Phulera-Rewari.
• The Corridor will provide a boost to EXIM Trade.

Eastern Corridor

• The Eastern Corridor with a route length of estimated 1856 km and consisting of the some distinct segments.
• Traffic on EDFC comprises of coal for the power plants in the northern region of India from Coalfields located in state of Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal , finished steel, food grains, cement, fertilizer, limestone from Rajasthan to steel plants in the east and general goods.

How will DFC aim at reducing Carbon Footprints?

• DFC aims at to follow a low carbon path adopting various technological options which can help DFC to operate in a more energy-efficient fashion.
• As per detailed study on a Green House Gas (GHS) emission forecasting for a 30-year period Cumulative GHG emissions over the 30-year period in the case of no-DFC scenario would have been 582 million ton CO2 while in the DFC scenario it would be 124.5 million ton CO2.
• This demonstrates that in absence of DFC implementation approximately 4.5 times more GHG would be emitted in 30-year period for freight transportation envisaged on the Eastern and Western Corridor.

Are there any future corridors in the list?

Ministry of Railways has assigned DFCCIL to undertake Preliminary Engineering & Traffic Survey (PETS) for 4 additional corridors, which is in progress.

• East-West Corridor (Kolkata-Mumbai) Approx 2330 Kms.
• North-South Corridor (Delhi-Chennai) Approx 2343 Kms.
• East Coast Corridor (Kharagpur-Vijayawada) 1100 Kms.
• Southern Corridor (Chennai-Goa) Approx 899 Kms.
  

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Source - PIB features