Western Dedicated Freight Corridor


The Western Dedicated Freight Corridor or Western DFC is a 1,506km long, under-construction freight corridor in India. It will connect Dadri in Uttar Pradesh with the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Navi Mumbai, Raigad District, Maharashtra. The corridor is being built by the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited, a public-sector unit under the Ministry of Railways and would be electrified with double-line operation. The Western DFC entails a new single-line branch from Prithla in Palwal district to Tughlakabad in Delhi, running parallel to the existing New Delhi–Faridabad–Palwal railway line.
The Western DFC is exclusively for transporting freight at higher speeds with increased load carrying capacity. The main freight commodities include fertilizers, food grains, salt, coal, iron, steel and cement. It uses Flash Butt Welded head-hardened 250 m long rails with axle load capacity of 25 t on tracks and 32.5 ton bridges, compared to the existing 22.9 t to 25 t axle load used on Indian Railway tracks. The line will support freight trains reaching length, pulled by high-power WAG12 electric locomotives and running at speeds greater than. The tracks will be entirely grade-separated and have a generous loading gauge of width and maximum height allowing for the double-stacked shipping container on flatcars to be transported, in contrast to wellcars used in other countries for double-stack rail transport. This allows for single trains to have a 400-container capacity. Trains will have radio communications and GSM-based tracking – a first in the Indian railway sector.
The Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor has a 46 km long branch line, that connects Khurja in Bulandshahr district on Eastern DFC with Dadri in Gautam Buddha Nagar district on the Western DFC.
Meerut is proposed as the largest Logistic Hub on the EDFC due to its nodal connectivity via several expressways. The Western DFC, along with the Delhi–Mumbai Expressway, will be a vital backbone of the Delhi–Mumbai Industrial Corridor. The Western DFC will cross the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway at 2 places in Haryana: Sancholi village and Paroli village.

About DFC

The Government of India established the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India on 30 October 2006 to undertake construction of this project.
India's first 2 DFCs, the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor from Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra and the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni in West Bengal, via Meerut and Khurja are aimed at decongesting the railway network by moving 70% of India's goods train to these two corridors.

Route

The Western Dedicated Freight Corridor will begin at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh on a new stretch of railway line right of way between Dadri-Rewari and then will run parallel to existing railway lines via Narnaul, Sri Madhopur and Reengus. The other important stations will be Phulera and Marwar Junction in Rajasthan, Palanpur, Ambli Road Railway Station near, Makarpura, Gothangam/ Kosad in Gujarat and Vasai Road in Maharashtra before it terminates at JNPT in Maharashtra's Raigad district. The Dadri-Rewari railway line passes through a 1 km tunnel with 14.5 m width and internal height 10.5 m to 12.5 m to carry double-stacked containers.

Construction

The DFCCIL has divided the construction work of the Western DFC into 5 section for contracting purposes.

Status updates

Apr 2005: The project is announced by the then Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh.Oct 2006: The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India is formed by the Ministry of Railways on 30 October.Feb 2008: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approves the Western DFC and the Eastern DFC.Sep 2009: The Union Cabinet approved a loan made by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.Jun 2013: The civil construction contract for the Rewari-Palanpur section is awarded by DFCCIL.Aug 2018: The inaugural run of a freight train is successfully conducted along the 190km segment between the New Ateli and the New Phulera stations.Dec 2019: DFCCIL successfully tested the 306km stretch between Kishangarh Balawas and Madar.Jul 2020: Testing for the 352.7km Madar to Palanpur stretch was completed.Jan 2021: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 306km route from New Rewari to New Madar and flagged off the world's first flat wagon double-stacked container train from New Ateli to New Kishangarh on 7 January.
  • Mar 2021: The 335km long New Madar to New Palanpur section is inaugurated on 31 March.
  • July 2021: About 60% of the Western DFC has been completed.
  • Aug 2021
  • *14 Aug: DFCCIL commences Roll-on-Roll-off service on the Western DFC. The rake consisting of flat wagons proceeded from New Rewari and arrived at New Palanpur, covering a distance of 630km.
  • *26 Aug: DFCCIL successfully completes a 2.75km long and 25 m high viaduct near Sohna on the Dadri-Prithla-Rewari section.
  • May 2022: A trial run was started on the section from New Palanpur to New Mehsana on 13 May and was finished on 25 May.
  • Jun 2022: After the trial run, the New Palanpur-New Mehsana is inaugurated and made operational by DFCCIL, which increases the corridor's length to 720km, from Dadri to Mehsana.
  • Apr 2024: 93% of the route operational, with the 138km Sanand-Makarpura and 244km Makarpura-Gholvad sections opened, and the 110km Gholvad-JNPT section the last one under construction.
  • Dec 2025: The 30 km strech from Vaitarna to new kharbao is almost finished with only electrification and signalling work remaining.
  • *On 31 December, railway officials conducted a trial run on the freshly laid track between Vaitarna and JNPT. Project completion stands at around 91%.