Alignment of dedicated freight corridors finalised: Minister

Indian Railways said Monday that alignment of the eastern and western dedicated freight corridors (DFCs) have been finalised and the projects are scheduled to be completed by December 2019.

"Alignment for both WDFC and EDFC has been finalised. As regards land acquisition, 80 percent has been completed. Civil contracts of about 1,100 km and systems contract of 945 km have been finalised," Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha informed the Lok Sabha in written reply.

"WDFC and EDFC are targeted to be completed by December 2019. Project implementation schedule, timelines have been drawn up and are being monitored on regular basis," Sinha said.

The EDFC and WDFC will enable goods trains to run at a maximum speed of 100 km per hour.

According to the minister, the WDFC will start from Navi Mumbai's Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and pass through several states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and terminate at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh. Its total length is about 1,500 km.

The eastern freight corridor will start from Sahnewal near Ludhiana in Punjab and pass through Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand and terminate at Dankuni in West Bengal - a total length of 1,856 kms.