Railways sanctions implementation of high speed dedicated freight corridors

NEW DELHI: Ministry of Railways has sanctioned implementation of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) with freight train speeds of maximum 100 kmph, said MoS for Railways Manoj Sinha in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

According to the Ministry of Railways press release, alignment for both WDFC & EDFC has been finalized. WDFC starts from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), Mumbai and passes through Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and terminates at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh. The total length of the Western DFC is about 1500 km.

The Eastern Freight Corridor, starts from Sahnewal near Ludhiana in Punjab and passes through Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and terminates at Dankuni in West Bengal, total length being 1856 km.

"Excluding Sonnagar–Dankuni Section of EDFC, WDFC and EDFC is targeted to be completed in December 2019. Project implementation schedule, timelines have been drawn up and are being monitored on regular basis," says the press release.

Apart from EDFC & WDFC, Preliminary Engineering Cum Traffic Surveys (PETS) have been taken up for the following DFCs:-

East-West Corridor (Kolkata-Mumbai) - It will traverse through West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.

North-South Corridor (Delhi-Chennai): - It will traverse through Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

East Coast Corridor (Kharagpur-Vijaywada): - It will traverse through West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.

Southern Corridor (Chennai-Goa): - It will traverse through Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa.