Faster freight service on Indian Railways! Goods trains run at 90 kmph on newly launched Eastern DFC stretch

Dedicated Freight Corridor: In a landmark of sorts, Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways has recently operated freight trains at a speed of 90 km per hour in the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor’s newly inaugurated New Khurja-New Bhaupur section. This 351-km Eastern DFC section was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently. According to officials quoted in a PTI report, the freight trains were even faster than the Rajdhani Express trains which run on this Indian Railways stretch at an average speed of 80 km per hour. At present, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) is carrying out the construction of 3,342-km long Eastern DFC and Western DFC for exclusive movement of freight trains.

According to DFCCIL, in a game-changing development, on the newly inaugurated New Khurja-New Bhaupur section of the Eastern DFC, freight trains have started to attain top speeds of above 90 km per hour. Higher freight train speeds would result in faster delivery of goods as well as faster turnaround reducing freight costs, the corporation stated. Till 3 January 2021, a total of 53 trains were operated. Of these trains, 32 trains ran between New Khurja and New Bhaupur (down direction) at the highest total speed of 83.70 km per hour. While in the up direction, between New Bhaupur and New Khurja, as many as 21 trains were operated at a maximum speed of 85.98 km per hour.

An official was quoted in the report saying that it is a small stretch. However, as this is one of the most congested stretches of Indian Railways, the freight trains will run at a faster speed than the Rajdhani Express trains. DFCCIL, in the first phase of the DFC project, is constructing the 1,504 route km of the Western DFC and 1,856 route km of the Eastern DFC. The Eastern DFC will start from Sahnewal and before terminating at Dankuni, WB, it will pass through the states of Haryana, Bihar, UP, Jharkhand. On the other hand, the Western DFC connecting Dadri in UP to JNPT in Mumbai will pass through the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Haryana.