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Commercialpedia Indian Railways commercial circulars and policies

DEDICATED FREIGHT CORRIDOR UPDATE !!

North-South
Circularfreight

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Circular numberNorth-South
TypeCommercial Circular
Topicfreight

Summary

more dedicated freight corridors (DFCs) – East Coast, East-West and

Text of the circular

The two recently commissioned dedicated freight corridors are 
already handling over 10% of freight on the Railways network, officials 
at Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) 
said on Friday. The eastern & western DFCs are running an average 
of 325 trains per day, still far below the daily capacity of 480 trains. 
“We are waiting for the last section of Western DFC to become 
operational. This stretch will provide connectivity to the major JNPT 
(Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust) port, and the traffic on it should then 
match the eastern corridor’s,” said a DFFCIL official. 
Currently, the EDFC is fully commissioned and running close to 200 
trains per day whereas the WDFC is 93.2% complete and running 125 
trains per day. In June, these corridors carried a combined freight of 
more than 14 billion GTKM (gross tonne-kilometers) and 8.5 billion 
NTKMs (net tonne-kilometers) which was 150% higher than the 
corresponding month last year. 
The official said that the DFCCIL’s mandate was to take over 70% of 
the IR’s traffic on the sections running parallel to EDFC and WDFC. 
“We have already crossed the 70% benchmark on the EDFC,” he said. 
DFCCIL claims that both corridors have de-congested the IR tracks 
by shifting freight trains to its own tracks. This has helped increase 
the punctuality of passenger trains across the rail network, and 
reduced the logistics costs with faster trains and reduced transit 
time of goods. 
As per DFCCIL officials, they have already sent DPRs (detailed project 
reports) for the proposed corridors to the railways board for 
approvals. In the next phase, the DFCCIL has plans to set up three

more dedicated freight corridors (DFCs) – East Coast, East-West and 
North-South – at an estimated combined cost of Rs 2 trillion. 
Even though the DFCCIL has set an official target to fully 
commission WDFC by March 2025, the work is not expecting to 
finish before July 2025. 
Meanwhile, the slow progress of the 1506-km WDFC has increased 
the overall project cost substantially. For instance, in 2022, the 
Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had said that the test 
check in the audit revealed that the delay in commissioning 
burdened the project with avoidable expenditure of Rs 2,690 crore as 
against the total expenditure of Rs 74,028 crore incurred on the 
project till March 2021. “Delay in completion of project also deprived 
Indian Railways of intended objective of creating additional line 
capacity to increase freight traffic share,” the CAG noted. 
Currently, the EDFC is fully commissioned and running close to 200 
trains per day whereas the WDFC is 93.2% complete and running 125 
trains per day. In June, these corridors carried a combined freight of 
more than 14 billion GTKM (gross tonne-kilometers) and 8.5 billion 
NTKMs (net tonne-kilometers) which was 150% higher than the 
corresponding month last year. 
The official said that the DFCCIL’s mandate was to take over 70% of 
the IR’s traffic on the sections running parallel to EDFC and WDFC. 
“We have already crossed the 70% benchmark on the EDFC,” he said. 
DFCCIL claims that both corridors have de-congested the IR tracks 
by shifting freight trains to its own tracks. This has helped increase 
the punctuality of passenger trains across the rail network, and

reduced the logistics costs with faster trains and reduced transit 
time of goods. 
As per DFCCIL officials, they have already sent DPRs (detailed project 
reports) for the proposed corridors to the railways board for 
approvals. In the next phase, the DFCCIL has plans to set up three 
more dedicated freight corridors (DFCs) – East Coast, East-West and 
North-South – at an estimated combined cost of Rs 2 trillion. 
Even though the DFCCIL has set an official target to fully 
commission WDFC by March 2025, the work is not expecting to 
finish before July 2025. 
Meanwhile, the slow progress of the 1506-km WDFC has increased 
the overall project cost substantially. F

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