Ministry of Railways has taken up construction of two Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) viz. Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) from Ludhiana to Sonnagar (1337 Km) and the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal (JNPT) to Dadri (1506 Kms.). So far, 1110 km out of total sanctioned length of 2843 km of DFC has been completed.
The pace of work has improved tremendously after 2014. The Status and progress of DFC as on 1st March 2014 and as on 1st March 2021 were as under:
S.No. |
Description |
Achievement | |
Till 1st March 2014 | Till 1st March 2021 | ||
1 | Capital Expenditure (Rs. Cr) | 10,357 | 74,788 |
2 | Completion (Kms) | 0 | 1110 |
Dedicated Freight Corridors will offer higher transport output and carrying capacity due to faster transit of freight trains, running of double stack container trains and heavy haul trains due to which the unit cost of freight transport will get reduced substantially and there will be savings in the Logistics costs. This would also improve the supply chain for the industries/logistics players located in DFC’s catchment areas leading to growth of EXIM traffic as well.
The above advantages of DFC will promote Industrial activities in the region by leveraging the Industrial corridors/townships being implemented along the DFC route. Development of New Freight terminals, Multimodal Logistics parks and Inland Container Depots along both Eastern and Western DFC are in different stages of implementation.
The above measures are also likely to create direct and indirect employment in the project-influence areas.
This information was given by the Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronic & Information Technology, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha