Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor

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Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor
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A WAG-12 locomotive on the Eastern DFC
Overview
Status923 km - Operational
916 km - Under construction
OwnerIndian Railways
LocalePunjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal
TerminiLudhiana, Punjab
Dankuni, West Bengal
Service
TypeFreight rail
SystemIndian Railways
Operator(s)DFCCIL
History
Planned openingMarch 2023[1]
Technical
Line length1,839 km (1,143 mi)
Track gauge5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) Indian broad gauge
ElectrificationTemplate:25 kV 50 Hz overhead catenary
Route map
Template:Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor

Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor or Eastern DFC is an under-construction broad gauge freight corridor in India. The railway will run between Ludhiana in Punjab and Dankuni (near Kolkata) in West Bengal via Khurja in Uttar Pradesh. This railway line is one of the multiple freight corridor being implemented by the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL). The Eastern DFC will mostly have double tracks and will be electrified, but the section from Ludhiana to Khurja (365 km) will be single line electrified due to lack of space. This freight corridor will cover a total distance of 1,839 km. This corridor is having a 46 km branch line which is joining Khurja (Bulandshahr district) on the Eastern DFC with Dadri (Gautam Buddha Nagar district) on the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (Western DFC).

As of June 2022, 923 km or 50% of the Eastern DFC has been completed and 99% required land for these have been acquired. The Eastern DFC is expected to be complete by March 2023.[2]

First two DFCs, Western DFC, from Dadri, Uttar Pradesh to JNPT (Navi Mumbai) and Eastern DFC from Punjab to West Bengal, which will decongest railway network by moving 70% of India's goods trains to these two corridors, are both on track for completion in March 2023. However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which caused lockdowns, curfews and restrictions, it resulted in delays in work due to lack of labour.

Route[edit]

The freight corridor will cover first 447 km of Ludhiana - Dhari - Khurja section with single electrified track. After this the remaining line will be double track electrified up to Dankuni in West Bengal. This will pass through the important districts of Sahnewal, Doraha, Ludhiana, Sirhind, Rajpura, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Hapur, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Hathras, Barhan, Tundla, Firozabad, Etawah, Kanpur, Prayagraj and Chandauli. To reduce load over the main line, this line will have many junctions. The proposed junctions on this line are Dhandharikalan, Sirhind, Rajpura, Khalanaur, Khurja, Daudkhan, Tundla, Bhaupur, Prempur, Karchhana, Jeonathpur, Mughalsarai Junction railway station, Ganjkhwaja, Sasaram, Dehri On Sone, Son Nagar, Gomoh, Andal, Bardhaman and Dankuni (The eastern terminal point).

Eastern DFC
State Distance Covered
Punjab 88
Haryana 72
Uttar Pradesh 1076
Bihar 236
Jharkhand 199
West Bengal 202
Total 1873

Construction[edit]

This corridor is divided into multiple sections for contracting purposes.[3][4]

Eastern DFC
Section Distance in km Route Status Project contractor Completion Date
Ludhiana - Khurja 365 Ludhiana-Ambala-Yamunanagar-Saharanpur-Muzaffarnagar-Meerut-Hapur-Bulandshahr-Khurja Under-construction GMR Group 2023 June
Dadri - Khurja (branch line) 46 Dadri-Khurja Under-construction GMR Group 2022 September
Khurja - Bhaupur 351 Khurja-Aligarh-Hathras-Tundla-Etawah-Bhaupur Template:Active [5] Tata Projects India- Aldesa Group[6][7] 2020 December
Bhaupur - Manauri - New Ganjkhwaja 279 Bhaupur-Prempur-Manauri (near Prayagraj)-Chheoki East/ Karchhana west (near Prayagraj) - New Ganjkhwaja Under construction / Partially Operational GMR Group[8] 2023 March
New Ganjkhwaja - New Chiraila Pauthu 123 New Ganjkhwaja - Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyay Nagar - New Chiraila Pauthu Template:Active GMR Group[8] 2021 July
New Chiraila Pauthu - Sonnagar 137 New Chiraila Pauthu - Dehri On Sone-Sonnagar Template:Active C&C Construction Gurgaon and BSCPL 2021 December
Sonnagar - Dankuni 538 Sonnagar-Gomoh-Dankuni Under construction PPP Model
Total 1839

Operations control center (OCC)[edit]

Built by Alstom at Prayagraj, OCC will house command and control center to monitor all trains and power supply systems on Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor.[9] It will be staffed by 150 people and the facility is spread across 4.2 acres.[10][11]

Bhadan and Khurja section of Eastern DFC in 2018.

Status updates[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. "Completion targets on India's DFCs likely to be extended". International Railway Journal. 22 April 2022. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
  2. Jha, Srinand (22 April 2022). "Completion targets on India's DFCs likely to be extended". International Railway Journal. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  3. Rlys’ reluctance to cede control delays $1-billion World Bank loan | Business Line. Thehindubusinessline.com (3 April 2013). Retrieved on 5 May 2014.
  4. Project Status | DFCCIL. https://dfccil.com/ (3 April 2022). Retrieved on 19 June 2022.
  5. "Bhaupur and Khurja section of DFC to be ready by November: DFCCIL". The Economic Times. 14 June 2019. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  6. Kanwar, Disha (24 January 2013). "DFCC awards Rs 3,300 cr Khurja-Bhaupur contract to Tata Aldesa JV". Business Standard India. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  7. "Work on Eastern dedicated freight corridor project begins". The Hindu. 9 March 2013. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  8. 8.0 8.1 Thakur, Raghav (13 June 2016). "More Indian freight corridor contracts awarded". International Railway Journal. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  9. "PM Modi inaugurates EDFC's Operation Control Centre at Prayagraj". RailPost.in. 29 December 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
  10. "PM to inaugurate the New Bhaupur- New Khurja section and the Operation Control Centre of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor on 29 December". pib.gov.in. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
  11. Jacob, Shine (7 September 2020). "Prayagraj to house the nerve centre of automated goods train running system". Business Standard India. Retrieved 5 March 2021.

External links[edit]

Template:Dedicated freight corridors of India

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