Dedicated Freight Corridors

PURUSHOTTAM GUHA
Member, Governing Council, IRT
Former Adviser,Railway Board

January 2019
DOUBLE STACK CONTAINER TRAIN ON
WESTERN DEDICATED FREIGHT CORRIDOR
Rationale
● Decongest already saturated road network & promote shifting of
freight transport to more efficient rail transport
○ National highways along the golden quadrilateral corridor comprising
0.5% of the road network carried almost 40% of the road freight
○ Railways lost the share in freight traffic from 83% in 1950-51 to 35% in
2011-12
● Significant reduction of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions in
transport sector in India
○ It is expected that DFC will save more than 450 million ton of CO2 in first
30 years of operation (Assessment based on Ernst & Young study)
● Surging power needs requiring heavy coal movement
● Booming infrastructure construction
● Growing international trade
Features
● World class and state-of-the-art technology
● Upgraded basic dimension & design
Features
● Signalling and Telecommunication
○ Train protection and Warning Systems
○ Train Management System
○ Global System for Mobile Communication for Railways
● Civil Engineering
○ Mechanised track laying
○ Head hardened rail
○ Blanket thickness based on quality of soil
○ Friction buffer stop
● Electrical System
○ Computer simulation tool: optimize rating of major equipment
○ SCADA and Protection system
Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor
Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor
● Route length of 1856 km consists of two distinct segments
○ an electrified double-track segment of 1409 km between Dankuni in West Bengal & Khurja in
Uttar Pradesh
○ electrified single-track segment of 447 km between Ludhiana (Dhandarikalan) - Khurja - Dadri
in the state of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh
● Projected to cater to:
○ A number of traffic streams-coal for the power plant
○ in the northern region of U.P., Delhi, Haryana, Punjab
○ and parts of Rajasthan from the Eastern coal fields
○ Finished steel, food grains, cement, fertilizers, limestone
○ from Rajasthan
○ Steel plants in the east and general goods
● It is also proposed to set up Logistics Park
● at Kanpur in U.P. and Ludhiana in Punjab
Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor- Traffic Projections
Funding of Eastern DFC

Mode of Funding Length Covered (Km) Share of Funding (%)

World Bank 1183 65

PPP Mode 538 29

Internal Fund 118 6

Total 1839 100

Western Dedicated Freight Corridor
Western Dedicated Freight Corridor
● Covers a distance of 1504 km of double line electric (2 X 25 KV) track from JNPT
to Dadri via Vadodara-Ahmedabad-Palanpur-Phulera-Rewari
○ The Western DFC is proposed to join Eastern Corridor at Dadri.
● Projected to cater to:
○ Traffic on the Western Corridor mainly comprises
○ of ISO containers from JNPT and Mumbai Port in
○ Maharashtra and ports of Pipavav, Mundra and Kandla
○ in Gujarat destined for ICDs located in northern India
○ Tughlakabad,Dadri and Dandharikalan.
○ Other commodities moving on the Western DFC
○ are POL, Fertilizers, Food grains, Salt, Coal, Iron & Steel
● It is proposed to set up Logistics Parks at
● Mumbai area, particularly in the vicinity of Kalyan-Ulhasnagar or Vashi-Belapur in
Navi Mumbai, Vapi in southern Gujarat, Ahmedabad area in Gujarat, Gandhidham in
the Kutch region of Gujarat, Jaipur area in Rajasthan, NCR of Delhi.
Western Dedicated Freight Corridor- Traffic Projections
Funding of Western DFC
• JICA is funding the western corridor through a soft loan-38722 crores
• The whole DFC project is structured at a debt equity ratio of 3:1
Current Progress
Operating Features

● Train headway 10 minutes

● End of train telemetry systems
● Trains to run without guard
● Station spacing- 40km
● Max permissible speed- 100kmph
● Trains to be timetabled
● Facility for long haul operation
● On Western DFC double stack container trains to increase 360 TEU per train
DFC Organization

● Setting up of an SPV under the Companies Act on 30th Oct 2006

● Under the administrative control of the Ministry of Railways
● Project is structured at a Debt to Equity ratio of3:1
Progress of EDFC
● Sonenagar-Mughalsarai (October 2019 expected)
– As on 1.3.18- 98% of land acquired EDFC(Except for Sonenagar –Dankuni
section)
– Contracts of Eastern corridor awarded except for 3 section
• Khurja-Dadri,
• Khurja-Ludhiana
• Durgawati-Karwandia section
● As of November 2018
– 194 km section from Bhadan to Khurja successfully tested
– Bhadan to Bhaupur to be ready January 2019
– Bhaupur –Mughalsarai-expected Aug 2019
Progress of WDFC
● As of August 15th 2018
– 90 KM-Ateli-Phulera opened
– 128 km-Madar-Marwar (Feb 2019 expected)