NEW DELHI: Ashwani Lohani, Chairman, Railway Board inspected Ateli-Phulera section of Western Dedicated Freight Corridor & announced that Ateli- Phulera section of Dedicated freight corridor will be started on 15th August 2018. Lohani inspected structures and discussed critical issues. The distance between two stations is 190 Kms and it falls in Haryana (Mahendragarh district) and Rajasthan (Jaipur district). This section contains 10 number of viaducts and major bridges, 127 number of minor bridges, one rail fly over and 118 roads under bridges. There are 6 DFC stations in this section and two junctions, i.e. Ateli and Phulera.
Lohani took keen interest in some of the latest construction methodologies, like Mechanised boring / auguring of mast foundations, erection of electrical poles through Mast Grabber etc, which are being tried for the first time to expedite the progress of project. CRB also inspected live working of track laying by NTC machine, capable of laying 1.5 km track in a day.
DFCCIL will run freight train at the maximum speed of 100 km/per hour as against the current maximum speed of 75 km per hour on Indian Railway tracks whereas the average speed of freight trains will also be increased from existing speed of 26 km per hour on Indian Railways lines to 70 km per hour on Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC).
DFCCIL, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) is engaged in planning, construction, operation and maintenance of the Dedicated Freight Corridors and in the first phase, the two corridors, namely Eastern Corridor from Ludhiana to Dankuni (1856 Kms) and the Western Corridor from Dadri to Jawahar Lal Nehru Port (JNPT) (1504 Kms) are being constructed for exclusive movement of Goods Trains.
The Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor from Ludhiana to Dankuni near Kolkata is traversing states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The Western Dedicated Freight corridor from Dadri (Uttar Pradesh) to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (Mumbai) is passing through Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.
The Western Corridors is being funded by Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA), while the Eastern Corridor from Mughalsarai to Ludhiana is being funded by the World Bank.