WDFC may start operations from October, three months ahead of schedule

NEW DELHI : The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) is expected to complete the last leg of Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) by October 2025, which is three months ahead of the scheduled commissioning in December 2025, a DFCCIL official told FE. With the completion of the Vaitarna to JNPT stretch, the entire 2843-km long DFC project will be completed.

On April 27, DFCCIL conducted speed trial run on the 75-km New Umbergaon Road-New Saphale double line section that marked the beginning of DFC operations in Maharashtra. “This line is fully ready with track, overhead equipment (OHE) and signalling and telecommunication systems. This line will be operational after the approval from the railway board. On the remaining 32 km stretch, the land has been acquired, and the track linking work is currently under progress,” said the official.

Earlier, the DFCCIL had set a target to fully commission WDFC by March 2025 but due to executional challenges, the commissioning was pushed to December this year.

Experts said that the upcoming rainy season could pose a challenge in the completion of work for the final phase.

While the Eastern dedicated freight corridor (EDFC) was fully commissioned in 2024, the two corridors will help ease freight traffic, reduce the overall logistics costs, and improve productivity. For instance, the DFC network is just about 4% of the Indian railways overall network but it is already carrying about 14% of the total freight that’s being carried on the rail network. Also, trains of DFCs are running at an average speed of 55-60 kmph, which is more than double of the average speed of 18-20 kmph for Indian railways.

The DFCs are turning out to be profitable revenue streams for the railways which is incurring huge losses on the passenger segment. In a February interview with FE, DFCCIL MD Praveen Kumar said that the cost of these two corridors is Rs 1.24 lakh crore, and the financial rate of return is 9%.

While the traffic on WDFC primarily comprises containers with some movement of imported coal, imported fertilisers and foodgrains, EDFC connects power plants in the northern states of UP, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, and Rajasthan with coal fields in the Eastern India.