Railways proposes to bring dedicated freight corridors

Bids for private trains on select routes to be opened on Jan. 29

December 02, 2020 10:18 pm | Updated 10:18 pm IST - HYDERABAD

The Indian Railways is planning to bring the Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) down south in the proposed second phase for 3,958 km.

The routes are: East Coast Corridor from Kharagpur to Vijayawada of 1,115 km, North South Sub Corridor from Vijayawada to Itarsi of 975 km, East West Sub Corridor of Bhusawal-Wardha-Nagpur-Kharagpur-Dankuni of 1,673 km and Rajkharswam-Andal of 195 km.

The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India will be preparing feasibility reports for these new corridors and these are to be ready by Dec.2021.Tenders for choosing the consultants to prepare the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) to detail on the alignment, land requirement, traffic projections and the rate of return are under finalisation, said Railway Board CEO and Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav.

“It will take an year for the new freight corridors DPRs to be ready. Tenders will be called in 2022 with bidding to be opened for the private parties also. Work is expected to start before 2023, and is scheduled to be completed by 2030. The project is part of our National Railway Plan of 2030,” he said, in a recent interaction.

With regard to the First phase of the Eastern and Western Corridors of Dedicated Freight Corridors of total of 3,371 km., he said 45% will be commissioned by next year. Of the 1,501 km., Eastern DFC (Ludhiana-Sonnagar-Dankuni) - Khurja-Kanpur 363 km., considered to be one of the busiest sections, will be ready this month and Khurja-Dadri of 48 km. by June 2021. Kanpur-Pt.Deen Dayal Upadhyaya - DDU (Mughalsarai) section of 137 km is to be ready by Dec. 2021.

On the 1,341 km Western DFC (Dadri to JNPT), 306 km of Rewari - Madar section will be ready this month and 335 km Madar-Palanpur section by March 2021. This will help in connecting with three ports of Gujarat. The Rewari-Dadri 122 km is to be ready by Dec. 2021.

“We have done considerable work this year and the completed sections will be commissioned from next year when we shift the freight trains on them. We are confident of a quantum leap in our freight carrying capacity considerably through this,” said the CEO.

The remaining sections of Western DFC are Palanpur-Makarpura-JNPT 738 km and Eastern DFC between Ludhiana-Khurja of 401 km and Kanpur-DDU of 402 km are scheduled to be completed by June 2022. Railway Agency - RITES, is in the meantime, preparing another report for corporatisation of production units and this will be ready by April-June.

“There is no need for any apprehension from the employees on this aspect and their interests will be protected,” he said.

Private trains

The bids for proposed private trains on select routes are to be opened on Jan. 29 with the schedule of finalising the contract by March 2021. “It will take about two years for the 152 pairs of private trains to become operational, so we expect them to become operational by 2023. Average participation is eight firms in each of the 12 clusters, which is a good response,” said Mr. Yadav. About 13 firms have qualified for the Request For Proposal (RFP).

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