Dedicated Freight Corridor project reaches Mumbai

The DFC bridge placed parallel to the existing Central Railway bridge between Kopar and Thakurli stations

India's most ambitious Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project on Sunday morning reached Mumbai suburban railway lines at Kopar station, with a massive girder to ferry double decker freight trains placed over local train lines. This is part of the western DFC project.

"We operated a special traffic and power block, to launch the first open web girders for Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation India Ltd's bridge parallel to the existing Central Railway bridge between Kopar and Thakurli stations on Saturday/Sunday from 1.35 am to 5.05 am," an official said.

The railways are constructing two DFCs - Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC). While the 1,337-km-long EDFC connects Ludhiana to Sonnagar, the 1,506-km-long WDFC connects Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal (JNPT) to Dadri.

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The WDFC connects Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to JNPT in Mumbai while traversing through Uttar Pradesh (18 km), Haryana (177 km), Rajasthan (565 km), Gujarat (565 km) and Maharashtra (177 km). It promises to take off freight from the main lines, creating more paths for passenger and suburban trains.

"The alignment has been generally kept parallel to existing lines except with provisions of detour at Diva, Surat, Ankleshwar, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad, Palanpur, Phulera and Rewari. However, it is entirely on a new alignment from Rewari to Dadri," an official added. The project is expected to be complete in a year by March 2024.