Western Dedicated Freight Corridor
| Western Dedicated Freight Corridor | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Overview | |||
| Status | 306 km Operational , Partly Under Construction | ||
| Owner | Indian Railways | ||
| Locale | Uttar Pradesh, Delhi NCT, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra | ||
| Termini |
| ||
| Service | |||
| Type | Freight rail | ||
| Operator(s) | DFCCIL | ||
| Technical | |||
| Line length | 1,504 km (935 mi) | ||
| Track gauge | 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) Indian broad gauge | ||
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The Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) is a broad gauge freight corridor under construction in India by Indian Railways. It will connect Dadri near India's capital, Delhi with India's economic hub, Navi Mumbai. This corridor will cover a distance of 1483 km and would be electrified with double line operation.
Western DFC is exclusively for transporting the freight at higher speed with increased load carrying capacity. Main freight includes fertilisers, food grains, salt, coal, iron, steel and cement. It uses Flash Butt Welded head-hardened (HH) 250m-long rails with track's axle load capacity of 32.5t compared to the existing 25t axle load used on Indian rail tracks. Government of India established the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) in 2006 to undertake construction of this project.[1]
WDFC entails a new single line branch from Pirthala to Tughlakabad running parallel to existing Delhi - Mathura main passenger line. The Route from Rewari to Dadri and Khurja junction is entirely a new line. "Western DFC" meets Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) at Khurja.
Construction history and current status
India's first 2 DFCs, Western Dedicated Freight Corridor from Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Mumbai in Maharashtra and Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni in West Bengal, are aimed at decongesting the railway network by moving 70% of India's goods train to these two corridors. Both are on track for completion by December 2021.[2]
On 18 August 2018, DFCCIL successfully conducted the inaugural run of an Indian Railways freight train along the 190 km segment between New Ateli and New Phulera stations.[3]
In December 2018, DFCCIL successfully tested the 306 km stretch between Kishangarh Balawas (Rewari) and Madar(Ajmer). The 306 km route commenced operations on 7 January 2021.
In July 2020, testing for the 352.7 km Madar to Palanpur stretch was completed.[4] At that time, 99% of the required land for the two corridors had been acquired, and 56% of the WDFC and 60% of the EDFC were complete.[2]
Route
The Western Dedicated Freight Corridor will begin at Dadri near Delhi in the state of Uttar Pradesh covering a new patch of railway between Dadri - Rewari and then will run parallel to existing line via Narnaul, Ringas. The other important station will be Phulera and Marwar Junction in Rajasthan, Palanpur, Amli Road (Sabarmati), Makarpura (Vadodara), Gothangam / Kosad in Gujarat and Vasai Road in Maharashtra before it terminates at JNPT at Nhava-Sheva in Navi Mumbai's Raigad district, in state of Maharashtra.[1]
| Western DFC | |
|---|---|
| State | Distance Covered |
| Haryana | 177 |
| Rajasthan | 567 |
| Gujarat | 565 |
| Maharashtra | 177 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 18 |
| Total | 1504[5] |
Construction
This corridor is divided into 5 section for contracting purposes.[6]
| Western DFC | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Section | Distance | Route | Status | Project contractor | Completion Date |
| Dadri - Rewari | 141 | Dadri-Rewari | Under construction | L&T-Sojitz Consortium[7] | 2021 December |
| Rewari - Iqbalgarh (Palanpur) | 641 | Rewari-Phulera (near Jaipur)-Ajmer-Marwar-Iqbalgarh | Operational | L&T-Sojitz Consortium. | 2021 March |
| Iqbalgarh (Palanpur) - Vadodara | 304 | Iqbalgarh (Palanpur)-Mehsana-Amli Road (near Ahmadabad)-Vadodara | Under construction | L&T-Sojitz-Gayatri Projects Consortium | 2021 September |
| Vadodara - Sachin | 163 | Vadodara-Sachin | Under construction | Mitsui-IRCON-Tata Consortium[8] | 2022 June |
| Sachin - JNPT | 265 | Sachin-Valsad-Vasai Road-Jawaharlal Nehru Port | Under construction | Mitsui-IRCON-Tata Consortium[8] | 2022 June |
| Total | 1504 | ||||
See also
- Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India
- Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor
- Future of rail transport in India
- High-speed rail in India
- Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor
References
- ^ a b Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, India, Railway-technology.com.
- ^ a b Railways' two big ticket projects DFC, bullet train on track despite lockdown: Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav. Economic Times, 6 June 2020.
- ^ Bhargava, Yuthika (4 September 2018). "Ateli enters history on a freight train" – via www.thehindu.com.
- ^ DFCCIL launches trial run
- ^ "Website".
- ^ Das, Mamuni (3 April 2013). "Rlys' reluctance to cede control delays $1-billion World Bank loan". The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
- ^ Tandon, Shubhra (8 August 2016). "Larsen & Toubro set to win Rs 4,000 cr western dedicated freight corridor project". The Financial Express.
- ^ a b Kumar, V Rishi (5 January 2016). "Mitsui-led consortium starts work on Western Dedicated Freight Corridor Project". The Hindu Business Line.