How Dedicated Freight Corridor are adding to GDP growth, boosting Rail revenues

News: A recent study by Australia’s University of New South Wales, published in the journal Elsevier, has found that dedicated freight corridors are improving India’s GDP and contributing significantly to the Indian Railway’s revenue.

1. Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) are high speed and high-capacity railway corridors that are specially built and designed to accommodate freight traffic.

2. The construction of DFCs was announced in Parliament during the Railway Budget for the financial year 2005-06.

3. The two important DFCs are: A) Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) B) Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC)

4. The EDFC is 1,337 km long and runs from Sonnagar in Bihar to Sahnewal in Punjab. It is complete and commissioned, with feeder routes connecting different coal mines and thermal power plants.

5. The WDFC is 1,506 km long and runs from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal in Mumbai to Dadri in Uttar Pradesh. It is 93% commissioned, with feeder routes serving various cement plants and large ports in Gujarat.

6. In 2006, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) was incorporated for the construction, operation, and maintenance of the corridors.

7. The need for DFCs was felt for two reasons: A) The overutilisation of the railway’s golden quadrilateral linking the four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Howrah, and its two diagonals (Delhi-Chennai and Mumbai-Howrah) B) Railways’ dipping share in total freight traffic.