Narendra Modi.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday dedicated the 402-km-long Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay-Bhaupur freight corridor to the nation.
In the event held at Varanasi, the PM flagged off a pair of Long Haul goods trains at the newly inaugurated Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC).
Constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 10,903 crore, this section is a crucial link for the 1,337 km long Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC).
Covering Chandauli, Mirzapur, Prayagraj, Kaushambi, Fatehpur, Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, the opening of this section will help in improving punctuality of passenger trains in Prayagraj division, due to shifting of goods trains on DFC track, said railways official.
Capable of operating freight trains at a speed of up to 100 km/hour, the corridor has eased the pressure on the Delhi-Howrah main line, thereby allowing the introduction of additional passenger train services on the Delhi-Howrah main line.
The corridor connects the coal fields of Jharkhand and West Bengal, such as Eastern Coalfields Limited, Central Coalfields Limited, Bharat Coking Coal Limited and Northern Coalfields Limited, to power plants in Northern India.
It is expected that the vicinity of New Kanpur Junction will witness the development of a multimodal logistics park, providing efficient cargo transportation facilities and creating new employment opportunities in the region.
One of the key infrastructure projects, the 1,337-km EDFC from Punjab to Bihar — has achieved completion ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. "The first section of EDFC was inaugurated in December 2020. Three years later, the entire corridor is completed now," official said.
The Eastern DFC is a broad gauge freight corridor in India. The railway will run between Ludhiana in Punjab and Dankuni (near Kolkata) in West Bengal via Meerut and Khurja in Uttar Pradesh.
It is mostly with double tracks and fully electrified, but the section from Ludhiana to Khurja (365 km) will be single-line electrified due to lack of space.