Dedicated Freight Corridor
India has been seeing a rapid growth in its economy since the last 7 years. Each financial year since 2016 has seen a growth in services and demand in every sector, be it Manufacturing, IT, Food, Finance etc. With the launching of campaigns such as “Make in India” and “Aatmanirbhar Bharat”, there has been a rise in number of startups resulting to a rise in exports particularly from the manufacturing and food Industry. But this growth met with an unexpected obstacle. This obstacle was the lack of a cheap and quick transportation system for the delivery of products from the factories and farms to wholesale markets and urban areas. In this blog, we will see how India is overcoming this obstacle by the construction of the DFC, that is, Dedicated Freight Corridor.
INTRODUCTION-
In October 2006, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Cooperation
of India Limited (DFCCIL) was formed under the Ministry of Railways. The DFFCIL
planned a “Golden Quadrilateral” of DFCs which will inter-connect India 's 4 major cities- Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai .
 |
| PROPOSED GOLDEN QUADRILATERAL OF DFCs |
In simple words, DFCs are special tracks which are meant to be used only by long-haul and high-capacity goods trains for running at high speeds. The main purpose of these DFCs is to deliver products to any corner of the country within 24 hours at a very cheap rate using environment-friendly technology. It aims for running long freight trains at an average speed of 100 km/ph. in a proper scheduled manner. It also aims for removal of all freight traffic from the rail lines belonging to the Indian Railways, thus reducing the traffic and delays faced by passenger trains. The Western DFC (WDFC) and Eastern DFC (EDFC) were the first corridors to be approved for construction. The WDFC and EDFC contracts were rewarded and approved to various infrastructure and construction companies in late 2014 and 2018 respectively with the deadline of being fully operation by 2024.
CONSTRUCTION
WDFC- The WDFC is a 1506 km long under-construction corridor connecting
the National Capital, Delhi to India ‘s Financial Capital, Mumbai. The Corridor
features double tracks along the complete route for simultaneous operation of freight trains in both
directions. The corridor is completely electrified and the
electric cables have been constructed at height which is enough for the running of double-stack goods trains hauled by electric locomotives which feature high-rise pantograph.
 |
| DOUBLE-STACKED GOODS TRAIN HAULED BY ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE |
The corridor starts from Dadri, which is located in the southern
outskirts of Delhi and ends at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, which is located in
Navi-Mumbai. It connects the states of UP, Haryana, Rajasthan,
Gujarat and Maharashtra and passes through major districts and cities such as
Rewari, Ajmer, Marwar, Palanpur, Mehsana, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Vapi.
 |
| WDFC ROUTE |
The corridor features some iconic structures such as the world’s first rail tunnel which can accommodate
double-stacked freight trains hauled by electric locos, the 3 km long viaduct
constructed at Sohna, Haryana and the viaduct which is under construction over
the Tapi river in Gujarat. As of June 2023, the stretch from Dadri (Delhi) to
Mehsana (Gujarat) and from Bhestan (Gujarat) to Sanjan (Gujarat) are
commissioned and operational. Once completed, the WDFC will be highly
beneficial for the transportation of-
1.
Raw Material such as wheat from the farms of
Haryana and UP and marble stone and cement from Rajasthan.
2.
Crude oil from the refineries of Jamnagar in
Gujarat
3.
Finished products from factories to ports such
as Kandla Port (Gujarat) and JNPT (Maharashtra)
4.
Imported produce from ports to wholesale/retail
markets.
5.
Parcels and couriers between various cities and
towns.
EDFC- The EDFC is an 1839 km long under-construction corridor connecting the textile city of Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni, which is near the port city of Kolkata in West Bengal. The Corridor will be completely electrified but will have only a single line from Ludhiana to Khurja, followed by double tracks till Dankuni for simultaneous operation of freight trains in both directions. It can only operate single-stacked freight trains and features multiple junctions for easy access for goods trains from the Indian Railways tracks and multiple major bridges spanning across wide rivers like Ganga and Yamuna. It passes through rocky terrain and thick forest in the state of Jharkhand.
 |
| EDFC ROUTE |
1.
Wheat, rice, pulses, fruits and seeds from the
fields of Punjab, UP, Bihar and West Bengal.
2.
Raw material such as Iron ore, coal and cement
from Jharkhand
3.
Finished products from Industries in Punjab, UP,
Jharkhand and Bihar
4.
Imports from the port of Kolkata
5.
Couriers and Parcels between towns and cities.
NEW TECHNOLOGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE- The construction
and operation of both DFCs has seen implementation of new infrastructure and
technology for improved efficiency in speed and capacity. Some of the major implementations are as follows-
1. New Locomotive- The DFCs can operate high-capacity freight trains at speeds of 80-100 km/ph. For this, there was a need for a new powerful electric goods locomotive. Thus, DFCCIL collaborated with the French locomotive company Alstom to build the brand-new WAG-12 locomotive. This locomotive can haul freight weighing greater than 6000 tons at a speed of 100-120 km/ph. DFCCIL gave a massive order of 800 such WAG-12s to be operated on the DFCs. To achieve this target, a locomotive factory was built in collaboration with Alstom in Madhepura in Bihar in the year 2019. Along with this, a Maintenance Depot was built in Saharanpur in UP exclusively for the servicing of WAG-12s.
 |
| WAG 12 LOCOMOTIVE (12000 HP) |
 |
| MADHEPURA FACTORY |
2. DFCCIL
Operations Control Centre- The Operations Control Centers, located in Prayagraj and Gandhinagar ensure the safe and
smooth operation of freight trains on the EDFC and WDFC respectively. These
facilities not only control the movement of trains on the corridor, but also
monitor the conditions of each and every locomotive, flatbed and wagon, the track conditions and the power supply of the entire corridor.
They are responsible for the entire scheduling of trains and the rake formation
of every train. The EDFC Operations Control Centre in Allahabad is officially the world’s
2nd largest railway control center.
 |
| EDFC OPERATIONS CONTROL CENTRE |
3. Track
and Power Supply- For DFCs, the tracks which are being built are quite
different than the normal tracks in the passenger railway network. These tracks
con handle more weight of freight at higher speeds, thus enabling the running of freight trains at an average of 100 km/ph. reducing their travel time to a great extent. The distance between two tracks is slightly more to ensure the
safety of the double-stacked trains. To speed up the construction of both
corridors, 7 NTC (New Track Construction) were deployed, 3 in the WDFC and 4 in
the EDFC. These NTCs are capable of laying 1.5 km of track per day, which is
twice as compared to manual track laying. They are also extremely accurate,
ensuring that there is no error in the placing of tracks through curves and
gradients. The corridor is being powered by the standard 25kV electric supply.
 |
NEW TRACK CONSTRUCTION MACHINE |
 |
| DFC TRACK |
THE PRESENT-
As of June 2023, a total of 1900 km DFC
corridor is operational with 886 km in EDFC and 1013 km in WDFC. The Completion
Deadline of both corridors has been set for the year 2024. In August 2021, WDFC
commenced Ro-Ro (Roll on-Roll off) services, in which trucks filled with goods
are loaded onto flatbeds, which are then hauled by an electric locomotive to
their destination. This helps in reducing fuel consumption, time and money for
the logistic companies and also generates more business and profits for DFCCIL.
On 25th May 2023, DFCCIL completed a major milestone of running
one lakh trains, with 55332 trains on EDFC and 44658 on WDFC. The completion of
both corridors was given the top-most priority by the Railways Board during the
2023 Annual Budget. The awarding of contracts for the remaining sections of the
corridors has been completed. Today, the share of goods carried by the railways
has increased from 30% to approximately 45%. Siemens is set construct 1200 units of a
brand-new 9000 hp electric locomotive in a brand-new facility in Godhra. This
will give a major boost to the goods carrying capacity of the DFC network.
After the completion of the EDFC and WDFC, the DFCCIL is set to start the
construction on the proposed corridors which will complete the Quadrilaterals
of DFCs in India.
Comments
Post a Comment