The Indian Railways has decided to allow passenger trains to use Dedicated Freight Corridors during emergencies. As per rule 24 of the Railways Opening for Public Carriage of Passenger Rules, 2000, a passenger train can use DFCs in case of an accident or maintenance in progress on the Indian Railways track. Initially the DFCs were developed for exclusive movement of freight trains, because on the Indian Railways track network priority is given to passenger trains over cargo trains and this slows down the speed of freight trains and makes them less punctual.
The Indian Railways and the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India have recently started increasing coordination in regions where the two have parallel lines. A real-time communication system is also been finalised between Indian Railways and DFCCIL to minimise the damage caused by train derailments.
