Dadri-Vaitarna Section Of Western-DFC To Be Completed By March 2024

The penultimate leg of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, stretching from Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Vaitarna in Maharashtra, is expected to be completed by March this year.

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw made this announcement during his visit to the Operation Control Centre of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (Western-DFC) in Ahmedabad on Thursday (11 January).

In a post-meeting discussion with journalists, Vaishnaw said that the Western-DFC between Dadri and Sanand was fully operational. The remaining stretch from Sanand to Vaitarna is anticipated to be operational by March 2024.

Notably, the work on the 109-km Western-DFC stretch from Vaitarna to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Mumbai, which faced delays due to land acquisition issues, has commenced, and the entire corridor is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

The last mile stretch to JNPT is crucial for the full-scale commissioning of the Western-DFC.

Providing details on the Western-DFC, officials reported that there are currently 90 trains in operation between Dadri and Sanand, achieving an average speed of 55 km per hour, comparable to the Rajdhani Train. The track is designed to accommodate 120 trains on each side daily.

Officials further explained that the stretch from Sanand to Makarpura is in the final stages of completion, with a target finish date by March this year. Trials are ongoing from Makarpura to Gothan, and the track from Gothan to Holwad has already been commissioned.

The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) — a subsidiary of the Indian Railways and a special purpose vehicle set up to implement the project — has set a target to complete the track from Holwad to Vaitarna by March 2024, and work is progressing diligently.

Indian Railways has undertaken the ambitious project of constructing two Dedicated Freight Corridors, namely Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors, to facilitate faster freight traffic evacuation.

The 1,506-km-long Western-DFC runs from Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to JNPT in Maharashtra, while the 1,337-km-long Eastern-DFC runs from Ludhiana in Punjab to Sonnagar in West Bengal.

As much as 88 per cent of the dedicated freight corridors was commissioned till October 2023, the Parliament was informed on 13 December last year.

The completion of the Sanand-Vaitarna stretch is expected to propel the overall progress, bringing the combined completion of the two corridors to approximately 95 per cent.