India’s Dedicated Freight Corridor nears the finish line. Why it’s a game-changer

The ambitious Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) in India has reached 80% construction, with the Railways aiming for completion in June 2024. The complex project's groundwork was set 18 years ago, but under the Narendra Modi government, funding and progress have increased. Since freight trains are currently forced to wait for passenger trains on common rail lines, which is not ideal for a fast-growing economy with ambitions to become an industrial superpower, the Dedicated Freight Corridor will prove to be a gamechanger for India once it is fully operational.

As an illustration, the current transit time for cargo trains traveling from Mumbai to Delhi is three days. Following finalization of the DFC's constituent parts, the timeframe will be cut to 48 hours. Currently, a freight train's typical speed is between 20 and 25 kilometers per hour. According to authorities, this may reach speeds of up to 60 km/h with the DFC.

As of last week, the DFC has reached a new peak. On the freshly opened parts of the corridor's eastern section, as many as 154 trains transported everything from coal and steel to grain and food. The Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) sees an average of about 140 trains every day. The Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) is the other half of the grand scheme, and it almost perfectly parallels the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government's Golden Quadrilateral road project.

The end goal is to link the Eastern and Western Distributed Freight routes with the upcoming coastal freight routes in the heart and south of India. DFCCIL, the Indian Railways' special purpose vehicle, is hard at work on comprehensive plans to build such railway corridors across the country. The DFC encompasses nine states, extends across seventy-seven districts, and involved the acquisition of roughly eleven thousand hectares of land. Union Cabinet approved the project in 2006, however land acquisition issues and cost overruns caused significant delays.

The importance of the DFC in helping India meet its rising electricity needs was also highlighted in a recent study conducted by the Railway Board. Fast freight trains on the DFC can help transport India's still-valuable coal from the country's mines to its many power plants. Railways officials have stated that they intend to align 'coal corridors' with the DFC.

Rail-based freight movement is preferable to container trucks, notwithstanding the environmental impact of burning coal.

The DFC will also alleviate congestion on passenger train lines, cutting travel times significantly.

With the goal of halving the present cost of shipping goods created in India internally and to the world by 2030, Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced the 'The National Logistics Policy' last year. The logistics price tag in India is 16% more than in China, where it is 10%. Getting there will need plenty of train rides.

To move 3,600 MT of freight, the National Rail Plan (NRP) 2020 aims to expand rail's modal share of the logistics sector to 40%-45% by 2030-31. One of the cheapest ways to carry goods and commodities is by railways, with rail freight costing about Rs 1.6 per tonne kilometer.

With an originating freight loading of 1512 MT in FY 2022-23, Indian Railways achieved its highest-ever performance in terms of output from the freight division.