Context:

• The ambitious 1,337-kilometer Eastern Dedicated  Freight Corridor (EDFC) Completed Ahead of Schedule. Operations on the entire corridor are set to commence on November 1.

Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC): It is a high speed and high capacity railway corridor that is exclusively meant for the transportation of freight, or in other words, goods and commodities.

• Dedicated  Freight Corridor comprises two arms: Eastern DFC and Western DFC, designed to revolutionize freight transportation and ease congestion on the Indian Railway network.
• Eastern DFC: It spans 1,875 kilometers, beginning at Sohnewal (Ludhiana), Punjab, and concluding at Dankuni
• West Bengal.
  • Fund: Rs 5,750 crore through a
    loan from World Bank
• Western DFC: The other arm is 1,506-km WDFC from Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Mumbai, touching all major ports along the way.
  • Funded by: The Japan International Cooperation Agency)

Benefits

• Freight Corridor Purpose: Dedicated freight corridors are specialized tracks designed for goods trains to alleviate congestion on the railway network and expedite the movement of goods.
  • These corridors offer an average speed of 50-60 kmph, significantly faster than regular railway tracks.
• Reduction in Transit Time: It reduces transit times for freight trains from 35-50 hours to 18-20 hours.

News Source: The Economic Times