Ahmedabad: With over 95% land acquisition work over for the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation Limited (DFCCIL), the ground work has begun in the state. The DFCCIL is confident that the Dadri-Palanpur section will be commissioned by December 2019 and it will be connected with Ahmedabad by March 2020.
Officials of the DFCCIL said the work was going at fast pace and the first trial run on the western section was carried out on March 27 with a locomotive attaining 100kmph speed. The test was carried out between Ateli and Phulera in Mahendragarh district of Haryana and Jaipur district of Rajasthan. The officials said that of the 1,504km western corridor, Mumbai-Dadri stretch has 565km passing through Gujarat. The land acquisition work in the state is almost complete. Some farmers in Anand have challenged the land acquisition and the matter is pending with the apex court.
Apart from Anand district, the acquisition work in other districts has been completed and in several sections, the earth work in on the verge of completion. Freight trains on DFC will run at 100kmph as against the current maximum speed of 75kmph. The average speed of freight trains will also increase from existing 26kmph to 70kmph on DFC.
The officials said that in order to connect Kutch with the DFC, the authorities have decided to connect the freight corridor of the Railway Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), Kandla Port Trust (KPT), Mundra Port &
SEZ Limited (MPSEZ) and Govt of Gujarat with the DFC.
The 301km corridor will be connected to Palanpur-Dadri DFC. The DFC will be extended to Chadotar railway station that will act as a transit station where freight trains from Mundra and Kandla will shift to the dedicated freight line. The official said that Chandesar and Chadotar stations have hardly any passenger traffic and hence the DFCCIL has taken over these stations and is developing them as transit station for Mundra and Kutch freight.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com