With the Western and Japanese DFCs now full, India has completed the second-biggest infrastructure plan — first proposed by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee — after the Golden Quadrilateral.
The Western DFC connects Dadri in Uttar Pradesh with Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA), one in all India’s main maritime gateways for export-import cargo. It’s anticipated to chop by about 60 per cent the time a freight prepare takes to cowl the route on the mixed-use Indian Railways tracks.
“For a truck journey that takes 30 hours, the DFC will take 10-12 hours,” Modi mentioned.
The Western DFC is commonly described as India’s industrial freight hall, linking northern and northwestern industrial centres with main ports together with Mundra, Kandla, Pipavav and JNPA.
In contrast to typical railway strains, the DFC is reserved for freight trains and permits speeds of as much as 100 kilometres per hour (kmph). Trains run at that pace throughout a lot of the route. Based on officers, the common time taken to cowl 100 km on the Western DFC is about two-and-a half hours, in contrast with almost six hours on a mean railway observe.
Many of the Western DFC had been accomplished by 2024, however the last leg connecting it to JNPA in Maharashtra remained delayed.
In November 2022, the federal government issued a termination discover to a Tata Tasks-led consortium chargeable for the Vaitarna-JNPA stretch, earlier than revoking it after the consortium assured officers that development would speed up. The work was accomplished earlier this yr.
The ultimate hyperlink additionally provides state-owned JNPA a functionality lengthy loved by competing non-public ports Mundra, owned by Adani Ports and Particular Financial Zone, and Pipavav, owned by Danish firm APM Terminals: The flexibility to deal with double-stacked containers immediately from the freight hall.
Trial runs on the finished stretch started June 30, and the route has been operational for greater than a month.
Container prepare operators, among the many greatest beneficiaries of the brand new connectivity, have welcomed the extra capability however stay involved about whether or not the hall is delivering its full potential in effectivity and price financial savings.
“Double stacking from JNPA will present extra capability and higher turnaround has already began taking place,” mentioned Manish Puri, president of the Affiliation of Container Practice Operators.
But the fee profit is presently solely 6-7 per cent, partly as a result of containers loaded on the higher stack are charged at 50 per cent of the value of a field on the decrease stack. “Even then, it ought to present 25 per cent financial savings nevertheless it has not been ready to do this due to laws round weight and dimensions of containers,” Puri mentioned.
JNPA has additionally begun charging ₹1,000 per field for loading and unloading as double-stacking operations develop, Puri mentioned. The affiliation has requested the railways to rethink weight-based laws to permit extra environment friendly operations and higher financial savings that may in the end be handed on to clients.
For now, the JNPA hyperlink could serve extra as a backup to Mundra than a alternative for it. Gujarat’s Mundra port is about 300 km nearer to northern India and already handles a lot of the area’s cargo. “Proper now, the turnaround time for a rake (which incorporates detention at terminals and different stoppages) between Dadri and JNPA is round 5-6 days and Mundra is 4-5 days,” Puri mentioned.
Extra optimisation can also be wanted on feeder routes — the traditional rail strains connecting ports with the DFC. Interchange factors between common tracks and devoted corridors can create delays, the president of the Affiliation of Container Practice Operators mentioned.
Double-stacking itself may have an effect on speeds. Such trains are restricted to about 65-70 kmph on the hall, in contrast with 100 kmph for single-stack trains, doubtlessly slowing the broader community, he mentioned.
The anticipated enhance in container visitors at JNPA is elevating one other query: Whether or not the port can deal with the extra rail visitors with out creating a brand new bottleneck. “The port undoubtedly must get its act collectively,” one operator mentioned.
The Western DFC’s completion comes after important adjustments to the jap community. Plans to construct a piece from Bihar to West Bengal by way of a public-private partnership had been shelved, with the Union Cupboard as a substitute approving a mixed-use multitracking undertaking in August 2023. The coverage shift meant the federal government needed to fund ₹12,000 crore from its personal coffers.
The Japanese DFC, accomplished in October 2023 at a value of ₹51,000 crore, serves each industrial and vitality demand. It connects coal-producing states and passes by way of areas wealthy in uncooked supplies together with iron ore, bauxite and coking coal.
Collectively, the 2 DFCs had been initially estimated to value a few sixth of their eventual ₹1.24 trillion price ticket. The undertaking was formally launched by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2005.
The 2 corridors now have capability to run 480 trains a day, in response to official estimates, and are working at round 435 trains a day.
Based on the annual report of Devoted Freight Hall Company of India, the special-purpose automobile created to construct and function the corridors, 130,116 trains ran on the 2 DFCs in 2024-25.
