Freight corridor set to kick off from Ludhiana

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will lay the foundation stone of the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), the railways' biggest project, at Ludhiana on September 27.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad had earlier said the Prime Minister would be launching the first phase of the Rs 66,000-crore project at Mumbai on October 6.

Though the railways gave no reason for the change in date and venue, it is understood that the situation in Maharashtra after the Malegaon bomb blasts and the judgements in the 1993 Mumbai blasts were the important factors for the change in location.

The prime minister is expected to lay the foundation stone of the project at Mumbai and Sasaram later, railway ministry sources said.

In order to cope with the increasing demand for freight loading, the railways had decided to construct DFCs connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, popularly called the Golden Quadrilateral, as also their diagonals.

Exclusive freight corridors would not only increase the speed of goods trains but also contribute towards increasing the railways' share of non-bulk traffic and create capacities to meet the expected annual demand, ministry sources said.

Dedicated Multi-Modal High Axle Load Freight Corridors with computerised control are proposed on Western and Eastern routes at an estimated cost of Rs 22,000 crore each.

In the first phase of Eatern Corridor project, a separate freight corridor will be built from Ludhiana (Punjab to Sonnagar(West Bengal) via Ambala, Sharanpur, Khurja and Allahabad.

Considering the possibility of increase in freight traffic on account of proposed deep sea port, this corridor would be extended upto the proposed port in Kolkata area later.

The Western Corridor would start from Jawahar Lal Nehru Port and would be routed via Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Palanpur, Jaipu and Rewari to Tughlakabad and Dadri.

This corridor would help in moving containers in double stack formation from/to ports to/from hinterland.

This project would be implemented through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) route which has already been cleared by the Union Cabinet. The SPV would enable resource mobilisation and implementation of the project.

Indian Railways is expected to carry more than 11 million tonnes of revenue earning freight traffic by the end of 11th five year plan. Development of DFC for carrying additional traffic is essential in view of high growth in demand.