NEW DELHI: Nearly 20 years after the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project was approved, India’s freight rail network linking eastern, northern and western regions will become fully operational Tuesday, when PM Narendra Modi inaugurates three remaining sections of Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) today.WDFC connects Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai with Dadri in UP, where it intersects with Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC), completing the country’s dedicated freight rail backbone.On the eastern side, the DFC from Sonnangar in West Bengal to Ludhiana in Punjab is fully operational. Though EDFC was originally planned from Dankuni in West Bengal, a 538-km section from Dankuni to Sonnagar was de-scoped from the DFC project and multi-tracking of this part is now being carried out by railways.After its inauguration, the 2,843 km of WDFC and EDFC will become operational.In a statement, PMO said three sections — New Sanand-New Makarpura, New Umbergaon-New Saphale and New Saphale-New JNPT sections — that Modi will dedicate to the nation covers 326 route km and has been built with a more than Rs 20,700 crore investment.
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Direct connectivity of Jawahar Lal Nehru Port will facilitate faster movement of export-import cargo, strengthen connectivity between industrial centres and ports, reduce logistics costs and help decongest Mumbai’s railway network, it said.Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that before 2014, no physical work had been completed on the project. NDA govt took this forward by addressing long-pending challenges and resolving issues across different sections.According to railways, as of Aug, the already operational DFC stretches had handled approximately 5.2 lakh freight train trips, averaging around 435 trains per day. The dedicated freight network has generated around 658 billion gross tonne km (GTKM) and 360 billion net tonne km (NTKM).