Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor
Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) is a freight specific railway under construction in northern to eastern India by the Indian Railways. The railway will run between Ludhiana in Punjab and Dankuni (near Kolkata) in West Bengal. The railway is one of the multiple freight corridors. For the railway line, broad gauge will be used. The Eastern DFC will mostly have double tracks and will be electrified but the section from Ludhiana in Punjab to Khurja (Bulandshahr) in Uttar Pradesh 400 Km will be single line electrified due to lack of space. This freight corridor will cover a total distance of 1839 km. This corridor will also pass through Dadri, which is the origin point of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor and which will serve as a junction.
| Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor | |
|---|---|
| Overview | |
| Status | Partly Operational, Partly under construction |
| Owner | Indian Railways |
| Locale | Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal |
| Termini | Ludhiana, Punjab Dankuni, West Bengal |
| Service | |
| Type | Freight rail |
| Operator(s) | DFCCIL |
| Technical | |
| Line length | 1,839 km (1,143 mi) |
| Track gauge | 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) Indian broad gauge |
| Eastern Dedicated Freight corridor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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First 2 DFC, Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC), from Uttar Pradesh to Mumbai and EDFC from Punjab to West Bengal, which will decongest railway network by moving 70% of India's goods train to these two corridors, are both on track for completion in December 2021. 99% required land for these 2 have been acquired, and 56% of WDFC and 60% of EDFC are complete as of July 2020.[1]
Route
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, Allahabad 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 | 1058 |
| Bihar | 239 |
| Jharkhand | 196 |
| West Bengal | 203 |
| Total | 1856 |
Construction
This corridor is divided into multiple section for contracting purposes.[2]
| Eastern DFC | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Section | Distance | Route | Status | Project contractor | Completion Date |
| Ludhiana - Khurja | 365 | Ludhiana-Ambala-Saharanpur-Yamunanagar-Muzaffarnagar-Meerut-Hapur-Bulandshahr-Khurja | Under Construction | GMR Group | March 2022 |
| Khurja - Bhaupur (near Kanpur) | 351 | Khurja-Aligarh-Hathras-Tundla-Etawah-Bhaupur | Operational [3] | Tata Projects India- Aldesa Group[4][5] | December 2020 |
| Bhaupur (near Kanpur) - Mughalsarai | 402 | Bhaupur-Prempur-Manauri(near Allahabad)-Chheoki East/ Karchhana west (near Allahabad) - Mughalsarai | Under Construction | GMR Group[6] | June 2022 |
| Mughalsarai - Sonnagar | 137 | Mughalsarai - Dehri On Sone-Sonnagar | Under Construction | C&C Construction Gurgaon and BSCPL | December 2021 |
| Sonnagar - Dankuni | 538 | Sonnagar-Gomoh-Dankuni | PPP Model | Not Finalized | |
| Dadri-Khurja | 46 | Dadri-Khurja | Under Construction | GMR Group | June 2021 |
| Total | 1839 | ||||
See also
References
- PTI (6 July 2020). "Railways' two big ticket projects DFC, bullet train on track despite lockdown: Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav". The Economic Times. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
- Rlys’ reluctance to cede control delays $1-billion World Bank loan | Business Line. Thehindubusinessline.com (3 April 2013). Retrieved on 5 May 2014.
- "Bhaupur and Khurja section of DFC to be ready by November: DFCCIL". The Economic Times. 14 June 2019. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
- DFCC awards Rs 3,300 cr Khurja-Bhaupur contract to Tata Aldesa JV. Business Standard (24 January 2013). Retrieved on 5 May 2014.
- Work on Eastern dedicated freight corridor project begins. The Hindu (9 March 2013). Retrieved on 5 May 2014.
- Thakur, Raghav (13 June 2016). "More Indian freight corridor contracts awarded". International Railway Journal. Retrieved 24 December 2020.