While speaking at the Dedicated Freight Corridor Commission India Ltd. (DFCCIL) Chief General Managers Conference yesterday, the Railway Board Chairman and CEO A.K. Lahoti was appreciative of the speed at which the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) was being commissioned and completed. He said that about 2,196 km i.e. 77.2% of the DFC has already been commissioned and 90% of the DFC should be completed by year-end.
The DFC tracks are host to running almost 200 freight trains on a daily basis – a number that is only bound to increase substantially over the next few years.
Lahoti also said that the DFCCIL should leverage the Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminal (GCT) policy to maximize the number of GCTs along its alignment.
Another point he mentioned was safety and asset maintenance, which he regarded as most important. He said that the Chief General Managers should conduct extensive personal inspections of the DFC assets at the ground level to maintain the integrity and quality of the state-of-the-art technology used in building the DFC.
Along with Lahoti, DFCCIL Managing Director Ravindra Kumar Jain spoke of the efforts of team and project partners in the construction of the DFC, and the Railway Board PED (Infra) Mukul Saran Mathur also spoke on the occasion. Back in June 2022, Jain also said that most of the DFC tracks, over 90%, will be operational by June 2023.
A detailed performance review and brainstorming of the field units with a special focus on the aspects of innovation are the highlights of the two-day CGM Conference. DFC is considered a critical tool for the perfect and efficient execution of the National Logistics Policy. It should also be noted that freight infrastructure capacity augmentation by DFC is crucial in the achieving of Indian Railways target of 3000 million tons of goods loading by 2030.