Dedicated freight corridor
& DFCCIL
The ministry of railways has announced the launch of a dedicated ‘freight corridor’, in order to decongest rail traffic. As of now, passenger and freight trains move on the same track, causing delays and fatal accidents.
The Indian Railways' quadrilateral linking the four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Howrah, commonly known as the Golden Quadrilateral; and its two diagonals (Delhi-Chennai and Mumbai-Howrah), adding up to a total route length of 10,122 km comprising of 16% of the route carried more than 52% of the passenger traffic and 58% of revenue earning freight traffic of IR. The existing trunk routes of Howrah-Delhi on the Eastern Corridor and Mumbai-Delhi on the Western Corridor were highly saturated.
The Growth of Indian economy has created demand for additional capacity of rail freight transportation, and this is likely to grow further in the future. This burgeoning demand led to the conception of the dedicated freight corridors along the Eastern and Western Routes. Minister for Railways, made this historic announcement on the floor of the House in the Parliament while presenting the Railway Budget for 2005-06.
In April 2005, the Project was discussed at the Japan-India Summit Meeting. It was included in the declaration of co-operation signed between the Hon'ble Prime Ministers of India and Japan for a feasibility study and possible funding of the dedicated rail freight corridors by Japanese Government. The feasibility study report was submitted to Ministry of Railways in October 2007.
In the meanwhile, Ministry of Railways initiated action to establish a Special Purpose Vehicle for construction, operation and maintenance of the dedicated freight corridors. This led to the establishment of "Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCC)", to undertake planning & development, mobilization of financial resources and construction, maintenance and operation of the dedicated freight corridors. DFCC was incorporated as a company under the Companies Act 1956 on 30th October 2006.
As the dedicated agency to make the vision into reality, DFCCIL's mission is:
To build a corridor with appropriate technology that enables Indian railways to regain its market share of freight transport by creating additional capacity and guaranteeing efficient, reliable, safe and cheaper options for mobility to its customers.
To set up Multimodal logistic parks along the DFC to provide complete transport solution to customers.
To support the government's initiatives toward ecological sustainability by encouraging users to adopt railways as the most environment friendly mode for their transport requirements.
A ‘freight corridor’ project is expected to be exclusively reserved railway tracks laid for freight trains along the golden quadrilateral. As per the plans the freight trains would be able to travel at speeds of above 100 km an hour.
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