July 31, 2020: Another milestone has been created in Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) as Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL) completed laying of track beyond Madar and upto New Palanpur station (352.7 Km) as freight trains on Rewari in Haryana to Madar in Rajasthan of the WDFC section has been running on trial basis regularly since December 2019.
First IR locomotive trial run in New Palanpur- Durai section of WDFC is being undertaken in two stretches –July 30, 2020, New Palanpur to Marwar (207.5 Km), July 31, 2020, New Marwar-Durai (135 Km). This section falls in Rajasthan state (for approximately 67 Km in Ajmer district, 196 Km in Pali district and approximately 70 Km in Sirohi district) and Gujarat state (for approximately 19 km in Banas Kantha district).
The total cost of works in this section is approximately Rs 5980 crore, excluding land.
The opening of this stretch will benefit various industries in Ajmer, Beawar, Swaroopganj, Abroad areas of Rajasthan and Haryana. In addition to this, the container depot of CONCOR at Swaroopganj will also come on the DFC map and get an advantage in terms of faster throughput.
This section contains 98 number of major bridges (12 important bridges and 86 major bridges), 539 number of minor bridges, two rail fly over and one road under bridges. There are 12 newly built DFC stations in this section including 09 crossing stations (i.e. Saradhana, Haripur, Chandawal, Jawali, Birolia, Keshavganj, Swaroopganj, Sri Amirgarh and Palanpur ) and two junction stations (i.e. Bangurgram and Marwar).
DFCCIL will run freight train at the maximum speed of 100 km/per hour as against the current maximum speed of 75 kilometres per hour on Indian Railway tracks whereas the average speed of freight trains will also be increased from existing speed of 26 km/ph on Indian Railways lines to 70 km/ph on Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC).
Heavy Haul train operation with 32.5 Ton axle load has been envisaged for the First time in India (currently practised only in USA, Canada, Brazil, Australia, China, Russia South-Africa and Sweden-Norway). Double line electric (2 X 25 KV) track will undertake higher haulage at higher speeds. Automated New Track Construction (NTC) machine with a record single-day track laying of more than three kilometres. High rise Over Head Equipment (OHE) of 7.4-meter height (existing IR OHE 5.5 m) for double-stack container movement on flat wagons. Reduced Energy Consumption using the latest technology.
Source: Business World
