Freight corridors built in India have the potential to handle extremely high traffic, with the capability to run a train every 10 minutes at full capacity, said Mangal Dev, Head of Hitachi Rail (Mobility) and Director of Hitachi India Pvt. Ltd. in a recent interview. His remarks underline the strategic importance of dedicated freight infrastructure in easing congestion and boosting logistics efficiency across the country.
Dev highlighted that the Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) — especially the Eastern and Western corridors — have brought advanced technology and operational improvements to India’s rail network. He noted that while current utilisation is significant, the corridors are still far from their full potential. When fully optimised with proper scheduling, headways — the interval between trains — could be reduced to just ten minutes, allowing freight trains to pass through key junctions at high frequency and greatly increasing throughput.
The expert also stressed the need to decongest India’s High Density Network (HDN), where both freight and passenger trains currently operate, leading to bottlenecks. Dedicated corridors help by separating freight traffic, enabling freight trains to run at higher speeds and with more regular schedules than on mixed-use tracks.
In the interview, Dev suggested expanding freight corridor projects beyond the existing Eastern and Western corridors to further unlock capacity and reduce congestion on the main rail network. He also pointed to the importance of technological upgrades — such as advanced signaling systems — to improve efficiency and safety.
Efforts to modernise Indian freight rail operations are already yielding results. Dedicated corridors have enabled longer, heavier and faster freight trains than traditional routes, and initiatives such as interconnecting yards and reducing unnecessary stoppages are underway to boost overall network capacity.