The Western DFC connects Dadri in Uttar Pradesh with Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA), one of India’s major maritime gateways for export-import cargo.
The Western DFC is often described as India’s industrial freight corridor, linking northern and northwestern industrial centres with major ports including Mundra, Kandla, Pipavav and JNPA.
According to officials, the average time taken to cover 100 km on the Western DFC is about two-and-a half hours, compared with nearly six hours on an average railway track.
Most of the Western DFC had been completed by 2024, but the final leg connecting it to JNPA in Maharashtra remained delayed.
Interchange points between regular tracks and dedicated corridors can create delays, the president of the Association of Container Train Operators said.
With the Western and Eastern DFCs now complete, India has finished the second-biggest infrastructure plan — first proposed by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee — after the Golden Quadrilateral.
The Western DFC connects Dadri in Uttar Pradesh with Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA), one of India’s major maritime gateways for export-import cargo. It is expected to cut by about 60 per cent the time a freight train takes to cover the route on the mixed-use Indian Railways tracks.
“For a truck journey that takes 30 hours, the DFC will take 10-12 hours,” Modi said.
Experts estimate the optimum potential for cost savings in container cargo at about 25 per cent, while the benefit currently accruing to container train operators is roughly 6-7 per cent.
The Western DFC is often described as India’s industrial freight corridor, linking northern and northwestern industrial centres with major ports including Mundra, Kandla, Pipavav and JNPA.
Unlike conventional railway lines, the DFC is reserved for freight trains and permits speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour (kmph). Trains run at that speed across much of the route. According to officials, the average time taken to cover 100 km on the Western DFC is about two-and-a half hours, compared with nearly six hours on an average railway track.
Most of the Western DFC had been completed by 2024, but the final leg connecting it to JNPA in Maharashtra remained delayed.
In November 2022, the government issued a termination notice to a Tata Projects-led consortium responsible for the Vaitarna-JNPA stretch, before revoking it after the consortium assured officials that construction would accelerate. The work was completed earlier this year.
The final link also gives state-owned JNPA a capability long enjoyed by competing private ports Mundra, owned by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, and Pipavav, owned by Danish company APM Terminals: The ability to handle double-stacked containers directly from the freight corridor.
Trial runs on the completed stretch began June 30, and the route has been operational for more than a month.
Container train operators, among the biggest beneficiaries of the new connectivity, have welcomed the additional capacity but remain concerned about whether the corridor is delivering its full potential in efficiency and cost savings.
“Double stacking from JNPA will provide additional capacity and better turnaround has already started happening,” said Manish Puri, president of the Association of Container Train Operators.
Yet the cost benefit is currently only 6-7 per cent, partly because containers loaded on the upper stack are charged at 50 per cent of the price of a box on the lower stack. “Even then, it should provide 25 per cent savings but it has not been able to do that because of regulations around weight and dimensions of containers,” Puri said.
JNPA has also begun charging ₹1,000 per box for loading and unloading as double-stacking operations expand, Puri said. The association has asked the railways to reconsider weight-based regulations to allow more efficient operations and greater savings that can ultimately be passed on to customers.
For now, the JNPA link may serve more as a backup to Mundra than a replacement for it. Gujarat’s Mundra port is about 300 km closer to northern India and already handles much of the region’s cargo. “Right now, the turnaround time for a rake (which includes detention at terminals and other stoppages) between Dadri and JNPA is around 5-6 days and Mundra is 4-5 days,” Puri said.
More optimisation is also needed on feeder routes -- the conventional rail lines connecting ports with the DFC. Interchange points between regular tracks and dedicated corridors can create delays, the president of the Association of Container Train Operators said.
Double-stacking itself can also affect speeds. Such trains are limited to about 65-70 kmph on the corridor, compared with 100 kmph for single-stack trains, potentially slowing the wider network, he said.
The expected increase in container traffic at JNPA is raising another question: Whether the port can handle the additional rail traffic without creating a new bottleneck. “The port definitely needs to get its act together,” one operator said.
The Western DFC’s completion comes after significant changes to the eastern network. Plans to build a section from Bihar to West Bengal through a public-private partnership were shelved, with the Union Cabinet instead approving a mixed-use multitracking project in August 2023. The policy shift meant the government had to fund ₹12,000 crore from its own coffers.
The Eastern DFC, completed in October 2023 at a cost of ₹51,000 crore, serves both industrial and energy demand. It connects coal-producing states and passes through regions rich in raw materials including iron ore, bauxite and coking coal.
Together, the two DFCs were initially estimated to cost about a sixth of their eventual ₹1.24 trillion price tag. The project was formally launched by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2005.
The two corridors now have capacity to run 480 trains a day, according to official estimates, and are operating at around 435 trains a day.
