With two ambitious dedicated freight corridors under implementation, Railways is planning to build five new freight corridors to ensure faster transportation of goods. The proposed corridors — East-West Corridor (Kolkata-Mumbai), North-South Corridor (Delhi-Chennai), East Coast Corridor (Kharagpur-Vijayawada) and South Corridor (Goa-Chennai) — are being considered to increase transportation capacity, reduce unit costs of transportation and improve service quality.
The Economic Survey says feasibility study has been undertaken on four future freight corridors and a pre-feasibility study of Chennai-Bangalore Freight Corridor has been proposed. Land has been acquired for the 1,839-km-long Eastern corridor, connecting Dankuni near Kolkata with Ludhiana in Punjab, and 1,499-km-long Western corridor, linking Jawahar Lal Nehru Port in Mumbai with Dadri/Rewari near Delhi.
Out of the 10,703 hectares to be acquired for the project, 7,768 hectares, or 73% have been awarded under the Railway Amendment Act (RAA) 2008. “The Eastern and Western DFC projects are being funded through a mix of bilateral/multilateral loans, gross budgetary support (GBS), and PPP," it said.
The speed of trains will be enhanced to 160-200 km per hour once the freight corridors are completed by 2017.
The project will segregate the passenger traffic from freight that will lead to faster movement of goods, making railways more competitive with road transportation.
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