21-Dec-2022: Feasibility studies for some routes of Diamond Quadrilateral undertaken

Ministry of Railways has undertaken feasibility studies for some routes of Diamond Quadrilateral namely Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Kolkata, Mumbai-Chennai, Mumbai-Nagpur and Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysuru.

Further, the Survey and preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the following Seven (7) HSR Corridors have been undertaken :-

1. Delhi-Varanasi
2. Delhi- Ahmedabad
3. Mumbai- Nagpur
4. Mumbai- Hyderabad
5. Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysore
6. Delhi- Chandigarh-Amritsar
7. Varanasi-Howrah

However, being highly capital intensive, the sanction of any High Speed Rail Project depends on several factors such as technical feasibility, financial viability and availability of financing options etc.

Till now, Government has sanctioned only one project of High Speed Rail, namely Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) Project with technical and financial assistance of Government of Japan. A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) namely National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) has been formed to implement this project. The present status of Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) project is as under:-

1. The Final Location Survey and Geotechnical investigation completed. Alignment finalized.
2. Statutory Clearances relating to wildlife, Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) and Forest clearance obtained in Gujarat.
3. Out of total land requirement of approx. 1392.6 ha, 1374.2 Ha land has been acquired.
4. The entire project work has been divided into 28 Contract Packages including Training Institute at Vadodara. At present, 19 packages have been awarded, 01 is  under evaluation and Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) has been published for 03 packages and for balance 5 packages NIT is yet to be published.
5. Out of total 352 Km length of project located in Gujarat and Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Civil works in 352 Km length have started in different phases from December, 2020 onwards. By the end of November 2022, out of total 352 km elevated viaduct, approx.  212.3 km of piling, 129.2 km of foundation, 113.3 km of the pier, and 14 km of the superstructure have been completed
6. 1596 out of 1651 utilities have been shifted.

21-Dec-2022: Total route length of 1610 Km of  Dedicated Freight Corridor has been completed out of total 2843 Km till October, 2022

For dedicated freight movement, Indian Railways has undertaken a mega-infrastructure project namely the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), comprising Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC- from Dadri to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust 1506 Km) and Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor(EDFC- from Ludhiana to Sonnagar-1337 Km) totalling 2843 route Km.

A total route length of 1610 Km (799 Km of EDFC and 811 Km of WDFC) has been completed out of total 2843 Km till October, 2022.

Joint Parcel Product (JPP) has been launched by Indian Railways in collaboration with India Post which aims to target business-to-customer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) market with focus on e-Commerce and MSME market. Under the ‘JPP’, India Post provides First & Last Mile services, and Indian Railways provide the Middle Mile services.

In this regard, a pilot project for ‘JPP’ has been launched on 31.03.2022, by attaching a Parcel Van in Tapti Ganga Express (19045/46) between Surat and Varanasi.

9-Dec-2022: Dedicated Freight Corridors will offer higher transport output and carrying capacity

Ministry of Railways has taken up construction of two Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) viz. Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) from Ludhiana to Sonnagar (1337 Km) and the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal (JNPT) to Dadri (1506 Kms.). So far, 1610 km out of total sanctioned length of 2843 km of DFC has been completed.

The construction of Dedicated Freight Corridors will offer higher transport output and carrying capacity due to faster transit of freight trains, running of double stack container trains and heavy haul trains due to which the unit cost of freight transport will get reduced substantially and there will be savings in the Logistics costs. This would also improve the supply chain for the industries/logistics players located in DFC’s catchment areas leading to growth of EXIM traffic as well.

The above advantages of DFCs will promote Industrial activities in the region by leveraging the Industrial corridors/townships being implemented along the DFC route. Development of New Freight terminals, Multimodal Logistics parks and Inland Container Depots along both Eastern and Western DFC are in different stages of implementation.

6-Apr-2022: Dedicated Freight Corridor Scheme

Indian Railways have taken a number of initiatives/steps to make the freight rates competitive which include, liberalized automatic freight rebate policy in empty flow directions, discount granted on loading of bagged consignment in open and flat wagons, 40% discount in freight to fly-ash traffic, station to station rate, round trip based charging for container, round trip traffic, 5% concession on haulage charge on loaded containers, 25% concession on transportation of empty containers and flat wagons, for expansion of container freight basket large number of commodities have been de-notified, etc.

In order to boost investment from industry in development of additional terminals for handling rail cargo, a new ‘Gati Shakti Multi- Modal Cargo Terminal (GCT)’ policy has been launched on 15.12.2021 and the target is to commission 100 Gati Shakti Cargo Terminals (GCTs) within the next three financial years, i.e. 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25.

Ministry of Railways has schemes to attract private investment in General Purpose Wagons, Special Purpose/High Capacity wagons and Automobile carrier wagons. During 2021-22, procurement of around

150 rakes has been approved under the General Purpose Wagon Investment Scheme, Liberalized Special Freight Train Operator Scheme and Automobile Freight Train Operator Scheme.

In order to improve the share of Railways in the freight market and to make it more attractive, a number of measures have been adopted such as increasing the axle load for carrying additional traffic per wagon, use of extensive computerization in freight operations, deployment of higher capacity locomotives and higher capacity wagons, improvement in maintenance practices of wagons and locomotives, improvement in track and signaling, training of staff and officers to adopt new technology and management practices, etc. Besides, Remote Diagnostic and Predictive Maintenance, based on artificial intelligence, is also being tried in Signaling.

Presently, Ministry of Railways has taken up construction of two Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) viz. Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) from Ludhiana to Sonnagar (1337 km) and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal (JNPT) to Dadri (1506 km).   Currently, 1110 km out of 2843 km of DFC has been completed. Further Ministry of Railways has also sanctioned for the survey/preparation of Detailed Project Report for the Dedicated Freight Corridors viz East-Coast Corridor (Kharagpur to Vijayawada – 1115 km), East-West Corridor (Palghar-Bhusawal-Nagpur- Kharagpur-Dankuni - 2163km and Rajkharsawan-Kalipahari-Andal - 195 km) and North-south Sub-corridor (Vijayawada-Nagpur-Itarsi - 975 km).

1-Apr-2022: Status of Freight Corridors In India

Ministry of Railways has taken up construction of two Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) viz. Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor(EDFC) from Ludhiana to Son Nagar (1337 Km) and the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal (JNPT) to Dadri (1506 Kms.). So far, 1110 km out of total sanctioned length of 2843 km of DFC has been completed.

The pace of work has improved tremendously after 2014. The Status and progress of DFC as on 1st March 2014 and as on 1st March 2021 were as under: 

Dedicated Freight Corridors will offer higher transport output and carrying capacity due to faster transit of freight trains, running of double stack container trains and heavy haul trains due to which the unit cost of freight transport will get reduced substantially and there will be savings in the Logistics costs. This would also improve the supply chain for the industries/logistics players located in DFC’s catchment areas leading to growth of EXIM traffic as well.

The above advantages of DFC will promote Industrial activities in the region by leveraging the Industrial corridors/townships being implemented along the DFC route. Development of New Freight terminals, Multimodal Logistics parks and Inland Container Depots along both Eastern and Western DFC are in different stages of implementation.

The above measures are also likely to create direct and indirect employment in the project-influence areas.

6-Dec-2021: Setting up of Dedicated Mineral Rail Corridors

National Mineral Policy, 2019 inter alia provides that dedicated mineral corridors shall be planned to facilitate transport of minerals from mining areas in hinterland along with encouraging the local evacuation networks to be built in an integrated manner.

Ministry of Railways has sanctioned construction of two dedicated freight corridors (DFC); i.e. Eastern and Western DFCs. Further, MoR has decided to prepare Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the following three new Dedicated Freight Corridors:

1. East-Coast Corridor (Kharagpur to Vijayawada:1115 KM)
2. East-West Sub-corridor
   1. (Palghar-Bhusawal-Nagpur–Kharagpur-Dankuni : 2163 KM and
   2. Rajkharsawan-Kalipahari-Andal : 195 KM)
   3.  North-South Sub-corridor (Vijayawada-Nagpur-Itarsi : 975 KM)

Maximum moving dimensions on DFC will be more liberal and comparable to world standards to permit heavier and longer trains. The DPRs for the DFCs are prepared by aligning the requirement of evacuation of minerals also from the hinterland.

24-Mar-2021: Salient Features of DFCs

Ministry of Railways is executing the work of construction of two dedicated freight corridors namely Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors (EDFC & WDFC) to augment the rail transport capacity along above routes to meet the growing need of the economy and facilitate faster evacuation of freight traffic. The salient features of DFC are as under:

• Maximum permissible Speed - 100Kmph
• Long haul and Higher Trailing load - upto 13000 tonnes per train
• Double stack trains on WDFC
• Efficient handling and value added services at freight terminals of DFC.
• Enhanced axle load of 25 tonnes
• Higher maximum moving dimension of Wagons
• Automatic Signalling with Mobile Train Radio communication
• Overall enhanced throughput

Out of 2843 km of DFC (1337 km Ludhiana to Sonnagar of EDFC & 1506 km JNPT to Dadri of WDFC), 657 km has already been commissioned.

The Eastern and Western DFC covers the following States and Districts:

Dedicated Freight Corridors will offer higher transport output with faster transit of freight trains. Running of planned double stack container trains and heavy haul will also add to the carrying capacity. The unit cost of freight transport will substantially be reduced and there will be significant savings in the Logistics cost as well. This would improve the supply chain for the industries/logistics players etc. in DFC’s catchment areas leading to additional freight volumes and growth of EXIM traffic as well.

The above advantages of DFC will promote Industrial activities in the region by leveraging the Industrial corridors/townships being implemented along the DFC route. Development of New Freight terminals, Multimodal Logistics parks and Inland Container Depots along both Eastern and Western DFC are in different stages of implementation

The above measures are likely to create direct and indirect employment in the project-influence areas.

3-Feb-2021: Dedicated Freight Corridors of Indian Railways

The following two (2) sections of DFC have been commissioned and dedicated to the nation by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India:-

1. Bhaupur to Khurja (351 km) of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) on 29.01.2020.
2. Rewari to Madar (306 km) of Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) on 07.01.2021.

Details of freight and freight revenue for the last three years are as under:

50% subsidy is being given in transportation of fruits and vegetable by Kisan Rail through a scheme administered by Ministry of Food Processing Industries.

In order to attract more freight business, Railways have taken a number of tariff and non-tariff measures. These, include:-

1. Setting up of Business development units to inter alia actively pursue and attract freight business for rail.
2. Withdrawal of 15% Busy season surcharge on railway freight for all commodities except iron ore and coal.
3. Concession on long lead traffic of 15 to 20% on Coal, Iron-ore and iron & steel.
4. Concession on short lead traffic of 10 to 50% for commodities (except Coal and iron-ore)
5. 5% discount on loaded Containers & 25% on empty Containers and waiver of stabling charges on Container rakes during COVID till 31st Oct, 2020.
6. Specific discounts on commodities such as fly ash.
7. Rationalisation of classification of industrial salt.
8. Making existing schemes like traditional empty flow directions, wagon investment schemes, PFT, Siding Policy simplified and made more customer friendly.
9. Debit/Credit scheme for Demurrage introduced for sidings.
10. Launching of Freight Business Development Portal.