Trains With Military Tanks And Equipment Chug Along Dedicated Freight Corridor

Optimising national resources, a successful trial run of a train carrying military vehicles and equipment was conducted between the 430-kilometre-long New Rewari (Haryana)-New Phulera (Rajasthan) section of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC).

Expected to enhance the mobilisation capability of the armed forces, the exercise was part of the ‘Whole of the Nation Approach’ for achieving seamless synergy among various ministries and departments.

The trial run was held in close coordination between the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) team and the Indian Army — a validation of the immense economic and strategic importance of the DFC.

Interactions between DFC, Indian Army and Indian Railways will be an important step in leveraging the DFC into the mobilisation matrix of armed forces and help strengthen national security.

According to the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC), development of infrastructure at certain locations to support mobilisation and trials to validate movement of defence-owned rolling stock on roll on-roll off (RO-RO) service is being formalised and modalities are being evolved.

These trials are an important step in ushering the way for enhancing the operational readiness of the armed forces. This initiative would set in place processes to ensure that military requirements are intertwined in the national infrastructure development at the planning stage itself.

Taking care of the people involved in implementing the project, DFCC has created an oxygen concentrator bank that can be used by its staff, employees of the stakeholders, technical consultants, re-engaged employees.

"We are providing oxygen machines at other places along the alignment of DFCC like Mughalsarai, Phulera etc,” said a senior DFCC official.

The work at DFC is being carried out taking into account all precautions and Covid appropriate behaviour in a bio-bubble to ensure workmen safety.

DFCC has been set up as a special purpose vehicle to undertake planning, development, mobilisation of financial resources, construction, maintenance and operation of DFCs.

In the first phase, the organisation is constructing the Western DFC (1,506 route km) and Eastern DFC (1,875 route km including PPP section of Sonnagar-Dankuni Section. The EDFC starting from Sahnewal near Ludhiana (Punjab) will pass through the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand to terminate at Dankuni in West Bengal.

The western corridor connecting Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) in Mumbai will traverse through the states of UP, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra of WDFC and EDFC.

WDFC’s 306 km Rewari-Madar section was dedicated to the nation on 7 January 2021.

Trial run of 369 km of WDFC between New Palanpur to New Kishangarh has been done.

EDFC’s 351 km New Bhaupur-New Khurja section and the operation control centre at Prayagraj were dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 29 December 2020. Approximately 2,800 route km of the whole WDFC and EDFC (excluding the Sonnagar-Dankuni PPP section) will be commissioned by June 2022.

Till date in the commissioned sections, a total of over 4,000 trains have been run.

In Eastern DFC, more than 3,000 trains are being operated, and in WDFC, 850 trains.

Some of the trains in the section are achieving an average speed of 99.38 kmph in EDFC and 89.50 kmph in WDFC. These speeds are comparable to any of the fastest mail express trains.