In a major boost to quick freight service, the Indian railways announced to complete 194 km long section between New Khurja (Bulandshahr) and New Bhadan (Firozabad), out of the 1856 km long Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC), which connects Punjab to West Bengal.

On Friday, the railway’s sister concern, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India limited (DFCCIL) will conduct a trial of freight train, said railway official. Inaugurating the 194 km section on Thursday from Bhadan, 20 km away from Shikohabad, railway chairperson Ashwani Lohani said, “The corridor
will bring revolution in freight transportation and will definitely result in remarkable improvement in punctual movement of trains. We have completed almost 200 KMs of track by now and expect to complete 800 KMs of track by March 2020.” He further said that, “This project will enhance the business prospects for railways along with provision of space of additional passenger trains.

About DFC:-Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), is one of the largest rail infrastructure project in India. Located between Delhi – Kanpur section, the Bhadan – Khurja stretch has six stations and a total of 249 bridges. With the dedicated corridor, the DFCCIL wish to attain 100 kmph for freight trains as against the current maximum speed of 75 kmph.

According to DFCCIL, EDFC is projected to cater to a number of traffic streams, such as coal for the power plants in the northern region of UP, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and parts of Rajasthan. The corridor will also cater service for finished steel, food grains, cement, fertilizers, lime stone. The total traffic is projected to go up to 144 millions tons in 2021-22.

EDFC has an electrified double-track segment of 1409 km between Dankuni in West Bengal and Khurja in Uttar Pradesh, and an electrified single-track segment of 447 km between Ludhiana (Dhandarikalan) - Khurja - Dadri in the state of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

It’s important to note, that EDFC will directly be linked to the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) of 1504 km electrified double track, helping railway to cater freight service upto Maharashtra via Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and UP. DFCCIL had recently run first double stack container freight train on the 190 km stretch between Ateli to Phulera (located on Rewari- Ajmer portion) of WDFC .