The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) is a

public sector undertaking A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...

which undertakes planning, development, and mobilisation of financial resources and construction, maintenance and operation of the ''"Dedicated Freight Corridors"'' (DFC). The DFCCIL was registered as a company under the

Companies Act 1956 The Companies Act 1956 was an Act of the Parliament of India, enacted in 1956, which enabled companies to be formed by registration, and set out the responsibilities of companies, their directors and secretaries. It was repealed and replaced ...

in 2006. First 2 DFCs,

Western Dedicated Freight Corridor The Western Dedicated Freight Corridor or Western DFC is a 1,506 km long, under-construction broad gauge freight corridor in India. It will connect Dadri in Uttar Pradesh (near Delhi) with Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra ...

(WDFC), from

Dadri Dadri is a town and a municipal board in Gautam Buddha Nagar District in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Dadri Railway Station is a complex yard in North Central Railway spread over six kilometers on busiest route of Delhi–Kanpur–Pa ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

JNPT Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) or JLN Port, also known as Nhava Sheva Port, is the second largest container port in India after Mundra Port. Located in Navi Mumbai's Raigad district, this port on the Arabian Sea is accessed via Thane ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

and

Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor or Eastern DFC is an under-construction broad gauge freight corridor in India. The railway will run between Ludhiana in Punjab and Dankuni (near Kolkata) in West Bengal via Khurja in Uttar Pradesh. This ...

(EDFC),

Ludhiana Ludhiana ( ) is the most populous and the largest city in the Indian state of Punjab. The city has an estimated population of 1,618,879 2011 census and distributed over , making Ludhiana the most densely populated urban centre in the state. ...

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

Dankuni Dankuni is a city and a municipality of Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is now part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). It is considered posh area in Hooghly. Geography Location Da ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the four ...

, which will decongest railway network by moving 70% of

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

's goods train to these two corridors, are both on track for completion by June 2022. 99% required land for these two have been acquired, and 56% of WDFC and 60% of EDFC is complete as of July 2020.Railways' two big ticket projects DFC, bullet train on track despite lockdown: Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav
Economic Times, 6 June 2020. There are new DFC approved/proposed in the national budget by

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

such as

East-West Dedicated Freight Corridor East-West Dedicated Freight Corridor or East-West DFC is a freight specific railway proposed from Eastern to Western India by Indian Railways. The corridor will run between Dankuni in West Bengal and Palghar in Maharashtra. It was announced by ...

North-South Dedicated Freight Corridor The North-South Dedicated Freight Corridor or North-South DFC is a proposed freight specific railway connecting New Delhi and Chennai. The approximate length of the corridor is 2,343 km with 43 proposed stations. Ministry of Railways has assigned ...

East Coast Dedicated Freight Corridor East Coast Dedicated Freight Corridor or East Coast DFC is a proposed freight specific railway in India under the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). It will be constructed by Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) of Indian Railwa ...

and Southern Dedicated Freight Corridor. It is both enabler and beneficiary of other key

schemes, such as

Industrial corridor An industrial corridor is a package of infrastructure spending allocated to a specific geographical area, with the intent to stimulate industrial development. An industrial corridor aims to create an area with a cluster of manufacturing or anothe ...

Make in India Make in India is an initiative by the Government of India to create and encourage companies to develop, manufacture and assemble products made in India and incentivize dedicated investments into manufacturing. The policy approach was to crea ...

Startup India Startup India is an initiative of the Government of India. The campaign was first announced by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi during his speech on 15 August 2015. The action plan of this initiative is focussing on three areas: # Simp ...

Standup India Stand-Up India was launched by Government of India on 5 April 2016 to support entrepreneurship among women and SC & ST communities. It is similar to but distinct from Startup India. Both are enabler and beneficiary of other key Government of In ...

Sagarmala The Sagarmala Programme () is an initiative by the Government of India to enhance the performance of the country's logistics sector. The programme envisages unlocking the potential of waterways and the coastline to minimize infrastructural inv ...

Bharatmala The Bharatmala Pariyojna ( 'India garland project') is an ecosystem of road development which includes development of tunnels, bridges, elevated corridors, flyovers, overpass, interchanges, bypasses, ring roads etc. to provide shortest, jam f ...

, UDAN-RCS,

Digital India Digital India is a campaign launched by the Government of India in order to ensure that the Government's services are made available to citizens electronically by improved online infrastructure and by increasing Internet connectivity or making ...

BharatNet BharatNet, also known as Bharat Broadband Network Limited, is a central public sector undertaking, set up by the Department of Telecommunications, a department under Ministry of Communications of the Government of India for the establishment, ...

Parvatmala The ropeway in India (also known as aerial lift, cable car or chair lift) is a public transportation system where cabins, Gondola lift, gondolas or open chairs are hauled above the ground with the help of cables. India's Parvatmala Scheme (literall ...

Historical perspective

In April 2005, wherein, India and Japan announced collaboration for feasibility and possible funding of the dedicated rail freight corridors, and

RITES Rail India Technical and Economic Service Limited, abbreviated as RITES Ltd, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Indian Railways, Ministry of Railways, Government of India. It is an engineering consultancy corporation, specializing in the field ...

was entrusted with the feasibility study of both eastern and western corridors, followed by formation of a Planning Commission's Task Force to prepare a concept paper on Delhi-Mumbai (Western) and Delhi-

Howrah Howrah (, , alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River opposite its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively it lies within Howrah district, and is t ...

(Eastern) dedicated freight corridor projects, and to suggest a new organizational structure for planning, financing, construction and operation of these corridors. In January 2006, RITES submitted the Feasibility Study Report of both the corridors and Cabinet approved Task Force's report, Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave "in principle" approval to the Feasibility Study report. Subsequently, RITES submitted the PETS Report based on which the project was approved at a cost of

₹ The Indian rupee sign (₹) is the currency symbol for the Indian rupee (ISO 4217: INR), the official currency of India. Designed by D. Udaya Kumar, it was presented to the public by the Government of India on 15 July 2010, following its select ...

28,181 crore.

Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC)

Under the Eleventh Five Year Plan of India (2007–12), the Ministry of Railways started constructing a new Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) in two long routes, namely the Eastern and Western freight corridors. The two routes cover a total length of , with the ''Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor'' stretching from

and the ''Western Dedicated Freight Corridor'' from

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) or JLN Port, also known as Nhava Sheva Port, is the second largest container port in India after Mundra Port. Located in Navi Mumbai's Raigad district, this port on the Arabian Sea is accessed via Thane Cre ...

( Maharashtra) to

. Upgrading of transportation technology, increase in productivity and reduction in unit transportation cost are the focus areas for the project. DFCCIL has been designated by the

as a Govt. of India(Ministry of Railways) Enterprise, and has been created to undertake planning & development, mobilisation of financial resources and construction, maintenance and operation of the Dedicated Freight Corridors. DFCCIL has been registered as a company under the Companies Act 1956 on 30 October 2006.

Need for DFC

The Indian Railways have witnessed higher freight volumes without substantial investment in infrastructure, increased

axle load An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearin ...

, reduction of turn-around time of

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can ...

, reduced unit cost of transportation, rationalization of tariffs resulting in improvement in market share and improved operational margins. Over the last 2 to 3 years, the railway freight traffic has grown by 8 to 11%, which is projected to cross 110 crore tonnes () by the end of 11th Five Year Plan.(Needs Updation)

Golden Quadrilateral Freight Corridor (GQFC)

GQFC has 6 DFCs, 2 are being implemented and the funding for the remaining 4 was approved in January 2018. The rail tracks linking four largest metropolitan cities of

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders wi ...

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of ...

and

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

and two diagonals

(Delhi-

) and

(Kolkata-Mumbai) are called the Golden Quadrilateral (GQFC). These carry 55% of the India Railway's freight traffic over a total route length. The line capacity utilisation on the existing highly saturated shared trunk routes of Howrah-Delhi on the Eastern Corridor and Mumbai-Delhi on the

Western Corridor The Western Corridor is a road in Christchurch, New Zealand which connects the suburb of Belfast, New Zealand, in the north to Hornby in the south and connects the Canterbury region to Christchurch Airport. Most of the traffic on the corridor ...

varies between 115% to 150%. The surging requirement for the power generation requiring heavy coal movement, booming infrastructure construction and growing international trade has led to the conception of the GQFCs.

Carbon emission Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and lar ...

reduction from DFCs will help DFCCIL claim carbon credits.

Summary table of DFCs

Green background for the systems that are under construction. Blue background for the systems that are currently in planning.

Conversion to high-speed corridors

Indian Railways plans to convert 10,000 km of passenger and freight trunk routes into high-speed rail corridors over 10 years with total investment of ₹20

lakh A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2,2,3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. For ...

crore (US$320 billion in 2019) and an annual investment of ₹2 lakh crore (US$32 billion in 2019) from 2017 to 2027, where half of the money will be spent on converting existing routes into high-speed corridors by leap-frogging the technology and the rest will be used to develop the stations and electronic signaling at the cost of ₹60 thousand crore (US$8.4 billion in 2020) to enable automated running of trains at a frequency of 5–6 minutes. Freight corridors of 3,300 km length will also be completed, freeing the dual use high demand trunk routes for running more high-speed passenger trains.Railways may invest Rs 20-lakh crore in high-speed corridors

The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961. As of 2012, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language b ...

, 23 December 2017.

References

External links

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) Official Website

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) Official link for project status

DFCC will use New Track Construction machine having capacity of 1.5 KM of track per day

March 2014 news article stating near total land acquisition and environmental clearances
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Use dmy dates from July 2020 Dedicated freight corridors of India Railway companies of India Government-owned companies of India Proposed infrastructure in India 2006 establishments in Delhi Indian companies established in 2006