The Indian Railways will build around 4,000 km dedicated freight corridors (DFCs) connecting industrial areas in the eastern and western parts of the country to southern India through major ports in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
The proposed DFCs are part of the next mega value infrastructure projects of the Railways.
The proposed DFCs include 1,115 km East Coast corridor from Kharagpur in West Bengal to Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh; the East-West corridor which comprises 1,673 km connecting Bhusaval-Nagpur-Kharagpur-Dankuni (near Kolkata) route, and 195 km Rajkharswan-Kalipahari-Andal route (West Bengal).
Another route is 975 km North South sub-corridor Vijayawada-Nagpur-Itarsi (Madhya Pradesh) route.
The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) will soon commence survey for these corridors and complete the exercise in a year.
These corridors will provide connectivity to Paradeep, Dhamra, Gopalpur Ports in Odisha and Vishakhapatnam, Gangavaram, Kakinada, Krishnapatnam and Machhalipatanam ports in Andhra Pradesh, ensuring faster movement of goods and capacity improvement in the over-saturated sections of the railway network.
In a major boost to development of Odisha, the proposed Kharagpur-Vijayawada corridor will pass through Kalinagar Industrial Area, connecting it with Southern India.
The Kalinagar Industrial Area will by then already be connected with the western part of the country through the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor.
The industrial area has ferrochrome and alloy industries, sponge iron plants, steel companies such as Tata Steel, Neelachal Ispat Nigam, Mesco Ispat & Steel, Jindal Stainless Steel, Yazdani Steel & Power, Maitan Ispat, among others.
Apart from this, Angul Industrial area in Odisha is also home to aluminium industries, thermal power plants, heavy water plant, coal fields and iron and steel plants. It will get an impetus with the new East-West sub-corridor, connecting it to the western part of the country as well as the coal belts in the east.
DFCCIL is already building the first two freight corridors, Eastern Freight Corridor from Ludhiana to Dankuni (length - 1,856 km) and Western Freight Corridor from Dadri to Jawaharlal Nehru Port (length - 1,504km), at a total cost of Rs 81,000 crore. These two corridors are set to be completed by 2021.
The East-West Dedicated Freight Corridor (EWDFC) is likely to handle around 449.88 million tonne freight by 2031-32 and 690.6 million tonne by 2041-42; while the EastCoast Dedicated Freight Corridor (ECDFC) is expected to handle 405.11 million tonne by 2031-32 and 861.02 million tonne by 2041-42.