200 Gati Shakti Terminals to come up along rail freight corridors : Indian Railways

NEW DELHI : The government is planning to build 200 Gati Shakti Cargo Terminals (GCT) under the public-private partnership over the next few years along the new freight corridors. Currently, the entire rail network in the country has 77 GCTs. Average cost of a terminal is Rs 70 crore.

The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) iself has four GCTs operational, while six more terminals are slated to be commissioned in FY26 along the corridors. “There are a total 115 stations on DFCs and 50-55 of them are suitable for Gati Shakti terminals. By December 25, the entire western DFC will be commissioned. Several Gati Shakti terminals are coming on this line. We are floating the tenders and there’s a lot of participation from players,” Praveen Kumar, Managing Director of DFCCIL said.

The dedicated freight corridors can over the next few years contribute significantly to the financial health of the Indian Railways and help prevent passenger fares from flaring up, Kumar said.

He said that even though the high-speed corridors are expensive projects and recouping their capital costs will take years, once their efficiencies improve, they can contribute significantly to the railways‘ operational revenues.

“The Indian railways’ main traffic is freight which contributes 67% to the overall traffic while 33% is passenger traffic. With the commissioning of DFC, the freight percentage will definitely go up further,” he said.

“The DFC corridors cost a staggering Rs 1,24,000 crore, but when the efficiencies are improved, a lot of cross subsidy for the passenger services may be possible,” Kumar said at a PHDCCI event.

At present, the share of road transport in the overall logistics sector is 46% while the share of railways is just 26%. Kumar said that with the plan is to reverse this on a “complementary basis”.

Source : FE