The shifting of coal traffic to the freight corridor will also bring a sigh of relief for passengers, as trains get stuck for hours around the DDU stretch due to congestion
The Ministry of Railways has completed a crucial section of the eastern dedicated freight corridor (DFC) from Uttar Pradesh’s Ahraura to Mughalsarai, which is slated to make transportation of thermal coal twice as quick, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCC) Managing Director R K Jain said on Thursday.
“Earlier, the eastern route had been completed only in patches, which used to entail switching of tracks from DFCs to railway tracks,” Jain said at a press conference here.
“Now, transit for coal from coal fields of eastern India to power plants of northern India will be entirely on the DFC route from Sonnagar (Bihar) to Dadri,” he said.
This comes at a time when the power demand has touched a record high of 220 Gigawatt (Gw) causing coal demand to also go up. Northern India is one of the highest consumers of coal and is leading the national electricity demand as days are getting hotter after a subdued May due to unseasonal rains.
The completion of the Uttar Pradesh-Bihar section of the corridor will bring down coal logistics time from the current 35-40 hours to 15 hours now, cutting costs and time by more than half. It is to be noted that Mughalsarai, or Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction (DDU) is one of the most congested bottlenecks in Indian rail infrastructure. According to the freight corridor SPV of the railways, the logistics will be slashed by half as coal trains will completely avoid the congested routes of Indian Railways. This will lead to a saving of approximately one day which in turn will reduce the turnaround time of rakes for coal transportation.
DFCC had also completed a crucial stretch between Dadri in Uttar Pradesh and Rewari in Haryana last month, thereby connecting the eastern and western DFCs, leading to seamless inter-corridor movement.
The eastern corridor is largely seen as crucial for movement of energy and industry-related raw materials, while the western corridor is highly anticipated for the movement of industrial goods and foodgrains.
A 187-km stretch between Dadri and Ludhiana in Punjab is close to completion, with DFCC committing to a completion deadline of August, which will then mark the completion of the entire corridor, which had been stuck for more than a decade. “Once the entire stretch is completed, there will be even better connectivity for thermal power plants in states like Punjab, and foodgrain movement to eastern India will also be shifted entirely to the freight corridor,” a senior official told Business Standard on the sidelines of the conference.
The shifting of coal traffic to the freight corridor will also bring a sigh of relief for passengers, as trains get stuck for hours around the DDU stretch due to congestion.
“The punctuality of passenger trains with North Central Railway has improved significantly with DFC shouldering the major load of freight trains,” the company’s statement said. “Now, punctuality will improve even further with the benefits trickling further to East Central Railway.”
Meanwhile, Jain also said that the Centre is considering building a stretch from Sonnagar to Dankuni in West Bengal through its own coffers. This would be a complete shift from its earlier plans to develop the stretch in public-private-partnership, a development Business Standard had reported on April 23.
Source: PTI
