Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday dedicated the 306-km New Rewari-New Madar section of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) to the nation. He also virtually flagged off the world’s first double-stack long-haul 1.5-km-long container train hauled by electric traction from New Ateli-New Kishangarh.
The New Rewari-New Madar section of the WDFC is situated in Haryana — approximately 79 km in Mahendragarh and Rewari districts — and Rajasthan –approximately 227 km in Jaipur, Ajmer, Sikar, Nagaur and Alwar districts.
Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said the dedicated freight corridor is being looked as a gamechanger for India. After a lot of hard work in the past five to six years, it has come to fruition.
Rajasthan governor Kalraj Mishra, railway minister Piyush Goyal, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot were also present.
The opening of this stretch will benefit various industries in Rewari, Manesar, Narnaul, Phulera and Kishangarh areas of Rajasthan and Haryana and will also enable better usage of the container depot of CONCOR at Kathuwas.
This section will also ensure seamless connectivity with the western ports of Kandla, Pipavav, Mundhra, and Dahej in Gujarat.
The dedicated freight corridor (DFC) is meant to create a safe and efficient freight transportation system in the country. Currently, the Western DFC connecting Haryana and Maharashtra and the Eastern DFC connecting Punjab and West Bengal are under construction. The combined length of the Western and Eastern DFCs is approximately 2,843km. North-South (Delhi-Tamil Nadu), East-West (West Bengal-Maharashtra), East-South (West Bengal-Andhra Pradesh) and South-South (Tamil Nadu-Goa) DFCs are being planned.
The new section consists of nine newly-built DFC stations in which six are crossing stations of New Dabla, New Bhagega, New Sri Madhopur, New Pachar Malikpur, New Sakun, and New Kishangarh while the other three are in Rewari, New Ateli and New Phulera are junction stations.
Freight trains plying on this section from now on will help decongest the existing Kanpur-Delhi main line of the railways, which currently handles trains at 150% of its line capacity. This section currently has over 50 passenger trains and around 60 goods trains. Due to the new section on the Indian Railway mainline, more passenger trains can be pumped in and those trains can, in turn, achieve better punctuality.
