The Dedicated freight corridors in India are a network of broad gauge

freight railway Rail freight transport is the use of rail transport, railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of Railroad car#Freight cars, freight cars (US) or goods wagon ...

lines that solely serve freight trains, thus making the freight service in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

faster and more efficient. The

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) is a public sector undertaking which undertakes planning, development, and mobilisation of financial resources and construction, maintenance and operation of the ''"Dedicated ...

is responsible for undertaking planning, development, and mobilisation of financial resources and construction, maintenance and operation of these corridors.

History

After establishing the

British Rule in India The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

, the Britishers introduced trains to facilitate cargo transport from the heartlands of India to the trading centres that they had set up. The first proposals for freight railways in India were made in Madras (now

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

) back in 1832. The first train in India ran from Red Hills to

Chintadripet Chintadripet ('originally Chinna Thari Pettai) is a locality in Chennai, in India. Located on the southern banks of the Cooum River, it is a residential-cum-commercial area surrounded by Chepauk, Island Grounds, Pudupet, Egmore and Anna Salai ...

bridge in 1837. It was named the Red Hill Railway and it used a rotary steam locomotive manufactured by William Avery. The railway was built by Sir

Arthur Cotton General Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton (15 May 1803 – 24 July 1899) was a British general and irrigation engineer. Cotton devoted his life to the construction of irrigation and navigation canals throughout British India. He helped many people by b ...

and was mainly used for transporting

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

stones for road-building work in Madras. Later in 1845, Cotton built the Godavari Dam Construction Railway at Dowleswaram in

Rajahmundry Rajahmundry, officially known as Rajamahendravaram, is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and District headquarters of East Godavari district. It is the sixth most populated city in the state. During British rule, the District of Rajah ...

, to supply stone for construction of a dam on the

Godavari The Godavari (IAST: ''Godāvarī'' �od̪aːʋəɾiː is India's second longest river after the Ganga river and drains into the third largest basin in India, covering about 10% of India's total geographical area. Its source is in Trimbakeshwa ...

River. In 1851, the Solani Aqueduct Railway was built in Roorkee. The freight was hauled by a steam locomotive called ''Thomason'', named after a British officer. It was used for transporting construction materials for an aqueduct over the Solani river. These freight railway lines were later dismantled. On 8 May 1845, the

Madras Railway The Madras Railway (full name Madras Railway Company) played a pioneering role in developing railways in southern India and was merged in 1908 with Southern Mahratta Railway to form Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway. The Madras Railway was ...

was incorporated, and the

East Indian Railway Company The East Indian Railway Company, operating as the East Indian Railway (reporting mark EIR), introduced railways to East India and North India, while the Companies such as the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, South Indian Railway, Bombay, Barod ...

(EIR) was incorporated the same year. On 1 August 1849, the

Great Indian Peninsula Railway The Great Indian Peninsula Railway (reporting mark GIPR) was a predecessor of the Central Railway (and by extension, the current state-owned Indian Railways), whose headquarters was at the Boree Bunder in Mumbai (later, the Victoria Terminu ...

(GIPR) was incorporated by an Act of Parliament. The

introduced a broad gauge of for the first passenger railway line in India, between

Bori Bunder Bori Bunder (also known as Bori Bandar) is an area along the Eastern shore line of Mumbai, India. Background This place was used as a storehouse for goods imported and exported from Mumbai. In the local language, 'Bori' mean sack and 'Bandar' ...

and

Thane Thane (; also known as Thana, the official name until 1996) is a metropolitan city in Maharashtra, India. It is situated in the north-eastern portion of the Salsette Island. Thane city is entirely within Thane taluka, one of the seven taluk ...

. Soon a country-wide railway network was established with both passenger services and freight services using it.Indian Railways: Some Fascinating Facts
"Train Atlas"
''Train Atlas'', Indian Railways, 2003 At the end of the 20th century, India had built one of the largest networks of railways, but the timely freight transport services were not provided with the priority and freight trains were often halted abruptly to pave the way for passenger trains. The Indian logistics cost was also sky high, taking up 13-15% share of India's GDP. Hence, there was need of a solution which would ease the burden on modern railway network and boost India's industrial growth.

Proposals

As the need for a dedicated freight corridor arose, in December 2006, an agreement was signed between

and Japan for the Development of two exclusive rail freight corridors, also known as Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) as a part of economic co-operation for industry and trade. One between Delhi and Mumbai, termed as Western Corridor and other between Delhi and Kolkata termed as Eastern Corridor. A band of 150 km each on either side of this corridor was planned to be developed exclusively for industrial development.

Construction

Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor of India

List of corridors

Summary

Green background for the systems that are under construction. Blue background for the systems that are currently in planning.

Impact

The dedicated freight corridors aim to bring down the cost of freight transport, by using electrical fuel, longer trains with more capacity(The western DFC utilises double stacking to transport more containers), thus helping Indian industries to become competitive in the world export market. These corridors will also help India achieve the targets it has committed to in the Paris Climate Accords, by switching from diesel propelled freight trains and fossil fuel-based road traffic to the electricity based railway locomotives. India is growing in renewable energy production, with most of the country's new electricity generation capacity being added through solar, wind and nuclear sources. The new generation

pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen. If a line dr ...

allows an increase in the height of the overhead wires (

catenary In physics and geometry, a catenary (, ) is the curve that an idealized hanging chain or cable assumes under its own weight when supported only at its ends in a uniform gravitational field. The catenary curve has a U-like shape, superfici ...

height) from the standard to -setting the world record for the ''high reach pantograph for highest catenary for electric locomotives'', this will also enable Indian railways to introduce double-decker passenger trains in high-density suburban passenger route and

RORO Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...

cargo service across the Indian railways network. The Indian passenger railway network will be able to run semi-high speed and high-speed trains in the existing network, as 70% of cargo traffic will migrate to the dedicated freight corridors. Also, increase the distance between track centers to , allowing larger out-of-gauge trains. Only low platforms will be permissible. The Eastern DFC may not be able to support RORO as it has height of compared to of the Western DFC. While the

Konkan railway The Konkan Railway (abbreviated KR) is one of the 19 railway zones in India with its headquarters at CBD Belapur in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The first passenger train ran on Konkan railway tracks on 20 March 1993, between Udupi and ...

is the only railway zone in India, which has streamlined the RORO service and is able to save 75 million litre

diesel fuel Diesel fuel , also called diesel oil, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a result of compression of the inlet air and ...

and related foreign exchange for the country. RORO services are deployed in

East central railway The East Central Railway (abbreviated ECR) is one of the 19 railway zones in India. It is headquartered at Hajipur and comprises Sonpur, Samastipur, Danapur, Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, and Dhanbad divisions. History First set up on 8 ...

Northeast Frontier railway The Northeast Frontier Railway (abbreviated NFR) is one of the 19 railway zones of the Indian Railways. It is headquartered in Maligaon, Guwahati in the state of Assam, and responsible for operation and expansion of rail network all across No ...

zones along with Konkan railway, but, RORO has failed to be successful in existing electrical railway infrastructure because of the height of the overhead electrical wires.

Proposed projects

*Rebuild overhead bridges to increase vertical and horizontal clearances. *Raise overhead catenaries, minimum height to above rail. *Widen track center spacing, minimum distance to . *Lengthening sidings/passing loops at every stations. *Remove high platforms and replaced with longer low platforms. *Upgrade signalling systems. *To build more rail links with Pakistan, including reopening. *Track doubling for the single-track routes. *Electrification for the diesel routes.

References

External links

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) Official Website

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) Official link for project status

DFCC will use New Track Construction machine having capacity of 1.5 KM of track per day

March 2014 news article stating near total land acquisition and environmental clearances
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Use dmy dates from February 2022 Dedicated freight corridors of India Railway companies of India Proposed infrastructure in India