Gandhinagar: A 1506 km long Western Dedicated Freight Corridor is under construction in Western India. Out of 1506 kms total length, 565 km stretch of DFC West passes through Gujarat. The operations on this corridor are likely to begin from the month of March next year, meaning within next 6 months.

While DFC line is primarily for exclusive use of goods trains, it will also be immensely useful for passenger trains when the situations demand. This is because, the DFC will be connected to the passenger train main line at seven places. In an emergency situation, express trains will be diverted to DFC through these links. Such emergency situations could be derailment of trains on the passenger line or submergence of tracks in peak monsoon season.

At each 100 km distance, DFC is being linked to the main line for emergency usage. Within Gujarat such a link shall be available at 7 points.

At present nearly 50 goods trains are operated on the main line. Once they are diverted to DFC, the load on the main line will reduce. Maintenance of main line track will be easier due to this, and the railways will also get sufficient time for corrective measures, such as the corrections on track to increase the speed of premium trains like Vande Bharat Express.

Railways have targeted 120 goods train operations on DFC line. Each goods train will be about 1.5 km long and operated using a 12,000 HP locomotive engine against 6,000 HP engines being used at present. Each goods train on the main line will be shifted to DFC, due to which mail and express trains will operate timely and smoothly. The speed of goods trains shall be up to 100 km/hour(on an average 75 km/hour).

DFC works on Bhestan – Sanjan(108 km), Makarpura-Gothangam(102 km), Palanpur-Sanand(152 km) are completed. A 28-km Gothangam-Bhestan stretch shall completed by December 2023, while Sanand-Makarpura stretch will complete by March-2024. DeshGujarat