The freight corridors will take off 70 per cent of freight load in the form of goods trains from the passenger network and the logistics cost will be trimmed by 50 per cent
Over the past many decades since 1950s, the Indian Railways has been losing market share to road transport because of inadequate infrastructure and poor services. In 1970, railway was carrying nearly 86 per cent of the total freight volume, which has now come down to 33 per cent. On the other hand, freight traffic by road has jumped from 14 per cent to 59 per cent. Now compare this with countries like China and United States, where railway freight share is 47 per cent and 48 per cent respectively. As on date, 90 per cent of India’s passenger traffic and 65 per cent of its freight uses road transport and these shares are growing, as per DFCCIL. India is placed at fourth position in the world in railway freight traffic after China, US and Russia.
The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) is developing the eastern and western DFCs as part of the Golden Quadrilateral connecting New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. While the western sector will be connecting all major ports, including Mumbai, Kandla, Pipavav and Mundra, the eastern corridor will connect most of the coal fields. The haulage charges on DFCs network will be 50 per cent lower compared to the freight tariff in the Indian Railways, said Anurag Sachan, MD, DFCCIL.
“We will be running all the trains at 100 kmph on a fully automated signal system,” he said. The dedicated corridor will also help improve the efficiency of the passenger trains which will no longer have to negotiate time schedules on account of commercial freight trains. As of now the freight trains move at 25 km per hour on an average due to the traffic load on account of passenger trains. Once they shift to DFCs their average speed will go up to anywhere between 60 to 70 km per hour on an average with a capacity to go up to 100 km per hour. “We will be running 120 trains each way a day with total carrying capacity of 13,000 tonne. So, we will not let this capacity to be underutilised,” said Sachan. The corporation is in talks with the Ministry of Railways to pass on some part of lower freight charges to the customers, he said.
“As so much capacity is being created and as per the concession agreement with the Indian Railways, we will also allow private players to come and run their own trains. There will be a regulatory body, like in the developed countries, and there will be a non-discriminatory access to these private players to operate. So, there will be a very fair competition between private players and the Indian Railways.
Eastern DFC will cover a length of over 1,800 kilometre between Ludhiana to Kolkata, while Western DFC will ply between Dadri and JNPT (1500 km). The two corridors are expected to be completed by December 2021 and once fully operational they are expected to take over a bulk of freight traffic from the Indian Railways and thus help in making the passenger traffic more efficient and smooth.
The two corridors with an expected cost of Rs 81,000 crore ($12 billion) are being partly funded by the World Bank (eastern lane) and Japanese government’s investment arm JICA (western lane). DFCCIL has spent around Rs.34,000 crore on this project in the last six years. The portions which have been completed along these corridors are already being operationalised for the automated running system. The operation control center (OCC) at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh will be the command centre for the entire route of EDFC. Equipped with first of its kind Integrated Train Management System (TMS) and Supervisory, Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) System in India, it is built on ICONIS (Integrated Control and Information System) platform. This centre hosts a 90 metre long digital wall with officials monitoring it on a 24×7 basis to manage the automated goods trains running system.
Nearly 1,000km of freight corridor is almost ready. In the first phase, 64km of track between Rewari to Palanpur in western freight corridor is almost completed, and 351km between Khurja to Bhaupur in eastern corridor is ready for formal inauguration.
DFCCIL will start survey of the remaining corridors of the Golden Quadrilateral, and begin work by the time the western and eastern corridors are completed by December 2021. “The government, after seeing the progress on these two corridors, have decided that it is the right time that we should plan to take up the future corridors so that by the time we finish these in two years, these corridors are also planned for execution,” he said.
Three more corridors are lined up — East Coast corridor from Kharagpur to Vijaywada (about 1,000 kilometres); South-East to West corridor from Bhusawal to Dhankuni (near Kolkata) and North South sub-corridor from Vijaywada to Itarsi (in Madhya Pradesh). The total length of these three corridors is about 4,000 kilometres.
MMLP connecting DFCs
Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh and Nilje in Thane District may be developed as the first major nodes where Multi-Modal Logistic Parks could be set-up along the ambitious eastern and western DFCs respectively to give an impetus to rail and highways linkages for transportation of goods, create avenues for infrastructure development, value addition and employment. DFCCIL is likely to appoint a consultant by April to carry out a feasibility study and prepare a detailed project report on these two nodes.
As per DFCCIL, the objective of developing these nodes is to provide end to end logistics solution – mapping of potential customers for each location – the prospective industry, the future and current market potential and traffic projections; product/service delivery and infrastructure gap assessment in a radius of 100 km around the proposed node. Thus, DFCCIL sees the logistic parks as a route to build a network through freight terminals to boost the modal shift to railways from road for freight and bring down logistic costs.
Besides, 34 points along these corridors like Palanpur, Mehsana, Rewari, Karchana (Prayagraj), and Gothangam (Surat) have also been identified as potential nodes. DFCCIL is planning to float an express of interest for those keen to invest in such projects. According to Sanchan, the freight corridors once fully operational are pitched to take off 70 per cent of freight load in the form of goods trains from the passenger network along these sectors. This he said is the minimum and if railways at some point plans to shift the remaining goods freight traffic as well, the DFCs are equipped for that.
Trial runs completed on DFCs
Indian Railways has conducted a trial run of double stack cargo train on Western DFC, on the 306 km long Rewari -Madar Section. A trial run of BOXNS cargo wagons at 110 Kmph has also been completed. The DFC infrastructure has been made in such a way that it utilises the carrying capacity of these freight wagons. At present, Indian Railways’ freight trains can carry 61 -71 ton weight per freight carriage at an approximate speed of 60 kmph. The newer, advanced wagons can carry weights up to 81 ton per wagon at an approximate speed of 100 kmph. These wagons have a tare weight that is its own weight of 19.85 tons and a carrying capacity of 80.15 tons. These wagons have a 14 per cent more weight carrying capacity than the wagons being currently used on Indian Railways.
With its timely delivery, railways has been targeting e-commerce platforms, and the freight corridor project will also open up doors for the automobile sector.
Focus on improving automotive traffic
The Indian Railways have recently been witnessing significant decline in transport of coal which has impacted its revenue from the freight segment. The total coal transported by railways stood at nearly 606 million tonnes in 2018-19, as per the revised estimate of 2019-20 its set to reduce to 592 million tonnes. According to the budget document, freight loading by railways in 2019-20 is about 1,223 million tonnes in March and nearly 50 per cent of this is coal. But during 2020-21 this share is expected to reduce to 40 per cent.
The state run transporter is targeting a five-fold increase in its share of transporting automobiles by 2025. Currently, the bulk of automobile transportation – particularly cars and two wheelers – is through the road network where they are transported from factories to showrooms across the country. The five year vision document of the railway ministry says the current share of automobiles transported through trains is barely 10 per cent.
Major ports race to connect DFCs on priority
The western DFC will be connecting JNPT with Dadri on the outskirts of the national capital and aims to build a dedicated railway line. It also connects ports, including Kandla, Pipavav and Mundra, in Gujarat with the hinterland. Asserting that the DFC was originally meant for its cargo, JNPT asked the central government to ensure private ports do not get precedence in connectivity through the project. It is reported that at present, JNPT handles 31 per cent of the overall container traffic of India and its share has been declining at the expense of private ports in the region.
New rail corridor along Delhi-Mumbai Expressway
Piyush Goyal-led Railway Ministry has expressed interest in building a railway corridor along the upcoming Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. A major advantage on this route is that no fresh land acquisition – one of the biggest hurdles for major infrastructure projects – would be required. The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway project is expected to reduce the road travel time between the two major cities to just 12-13 hours from 24 hours at present. The highway project is likely to be completed in three years’ time. The proposed new railway corridor along the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is likely to have a speed potential of 160 kmph, keeping in mind Indian Railways’ aim to run semi-high speed trains on the Golden Quadrilateral. Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet had last year approved the Rs 6,806 crore plan to upgrade the existing Delhi-Mumbai Indian Railways route to 160 kmph speed potential. This includes the Vadodara-Ahmedabad stretch as well. The project is expected to be complete by 2022-23.
