The entire 1337 kilometre (km) length of the Rs 51,000-crore Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) was declared operational on Friday. This was possible after the successful trail run of the first freight train over the 401-kilometre long New Sahnewal (Punjab) to New Khurja (Uttar Pradesh) section of the EDFC.
The first commercial service on this route is scheduled for November 1. Its counterpart, the 1046 km long Western DFC connecting Khurja to Jawaharlal Nehru Port (Maharashtra) is estimated to cost Rs 72,000 crore when complete during the next fiscal. “More than 95% of the total DFC will be completed by March 2024,” a statement from Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) said while adding that the entire corridor is ‘at an advanced stage of completion.’
“At present, 2383 km (83.8%) of a total length of 2843 km has been commissioned,” DFCCIL said.
With this, the total cost of DFC has touched Rs 1.24 lakh crore, significantly higher than the Rs 82,000 crore initial sanctioned cost. Responding to a query on the inflated cost, the senior DFCCIL official said, “Land acquisition cost alone has risen to Rs 20,000 crore, up from initial estimates of Rs 8,000 crore.”
According to official estimates, the coal transit time from the coalfields of Eastern India to the power plants of Northern India has been reduced by 30-40% with the operationalization of EDFC. This is leading to a significant reduction in the inventory costs of power plants.
“With the running of trains over WDFC, the freight transit time between the ports of Western India and North India has been reduced by almost 50%,” the statement said while highlighting the successful transportation of perishable commodity (milk) in a much reduced time from the dairies of Gujarat to the National Capital Region (NCR).