By 2021, freight trains can ply on 40 pc of freight corridor: DFCCIL

The dedicated freight corridor (DFC) is one of the largest railway infrastructure project undertaken by the government at an overall cost is Rs 81,459 crore.

The DFC has a western corridor of 1,504 kms from J N Port in Mumbai to Dadri in Uttar Pradesh and an eastern corridor of 1,856 kms from Sahnewal near Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni in West Bengal.

"Forty per cent of the DFC route km is slated for completion in FY 2020-2021. From Kanpur, Khurja, Dadri, Rewari, Ajmer, Palanpur to Gujarat ports will be connected by December 2021," DFCCIL managing director R N Singh said.

"This will boost the industrial scenario of this region. Most of the sections will be commissioned by March 2022 and the remaining whole eastern and western corridors will be commissioned by June 2022," Singh said.

Officials said that with the completion of the Dadri to Rewari section of the DFC, the ''Roll-on Roll-off (Ro-Ro)'' services of the railways can begin, leading to drastic reduction in pollution in Delhi-NCR.

Under the service, loaded trucks can be moved on flat rakes to avoid congestion on roads.

The ''Ro-Ro'' service aims at reducing carbon emission and congestion on roads of the National Capital Region (NCR) as about 66,000 trucks pass through Delhi and its adjoining areas in a day, they said.

The Railways has three more corridors in the pipeline and the surveys for these will be completed by 2021, the statement said.

These DFCs are the East Coast Corridor, the East-West Corridor and the North-South Sub-Corridor.

These corridors are slated to be completed by 2030, the officials said.

The 1,115-km East Coast Corridor will be from Kharagpur in West Bengal to Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh; and the 975-km North-South Sub-Corridor will connect Vijayawada-Nagpur-Itarsi.

The East-West corridor comprises 1,673 km of route connecting Bhusaval-Nagpur-Kharagpur-Dankuni and 195-km of route connecting Rajkharswan-Kalipahari-Andal.