The Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) from Punjab to Bihar, having a 1,337 km stretch, is now ready for commissioning, and will begin operations by early November 2023.

EDFC has been developed at an estimated cost of Rs 55,000 crore, while most of the amount was invested in land acquisition and changes in the scope of the project. The first section of EDFC was inaugurated in December 2020, and now the entire corridor is nearing completion. On completion, thermal power plants in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, and partly Rajasthan will benefit from the corridor as it would cater largely to coal traffic.

Dedicated freight corridors offer an average speed of 50-60 kmph, which is almost thrice compared with regular railway tracks. In addition, freight trains from Sonnagar to Dadri will now take nearly 18 to 20 hours.

The corridor is anticipated to be a key strategy in the Centre's plan to prevent future coal problems by optimising the transportation network. Presently, 140 trains are running on several sections of the EDFC, which has been operational in parts since 2020, and the tracks can run 250 trains everyday.