Indian Railways moves the nation – from passengers to goods – the network is vast, but also congested. Trains, whether passenger or freight, face delays, slower average speeds as the system functions under the load of huge demand.But now, with the completion of India’s dedicated freight corridor network, the average speed of trains – both freight and passenger – is expected to go up. For the world’s sixth largest economy, timely movement of goods at competitive costs is important – and with the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight corridors now fully functional, experts see a game-changer effect.India’s Dedicated Freight Corridor project has finally reached a milestone that was years in the making. With the commissioning of the last remaining sections of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, the country’s 2,843-km dedicated freight network is now fully operational.The network comprises the 1,506-km Western DFC between Dadri and JNPT and the 1,337-km Eastern DFC between New Sahnewal in Punjab and New Sonnagar in Bihar. The final three Western DFC sections which were inaugurated this week by PM Narendra Modi cover 326 kms and were developed at a cost of more than Rs 20,700 crore.
Why India needs Dedicated Freight Corridors
But the significance of the DFC lies in more than the completion of a large railway project. The corridors were conceived to address a basic problem on India’s railway network: some of the country’s busiest freight routes had become heavily congested.The existing Howrah-Delhi and Mumbai-Delhi trunk routes were operating at 115-150% of their capacity, leaving freight trains to compete for space with passenger services.The DFC has been designed to separate freight movement from the passenger network and create dedicated capacity for goods trains.That separation is already translating into faster movement. The average speed of freight trains on the DFC network is reportedly above 50 kmph, about twice the average speed on non-DFC routes. Around 400-plus freight trains run on the two corridors every day.The two corridors also serve different freight flows. The Western DFC connects northern India with the major ports of western India and is particularly important for containerised cargo, while the Eastern DFC caters significantly to bulk commodities moving from the mineral-rich eastern region.The ability to run double-stack container trains directly to important ports has increased the amount of cargo that can be carried in a single train, improving the efficiency of long-distance rail freight.The impact also goes beyond just faster freight movement. By shifting goods trains onto dedicated tracks, the DFC network releases important capacity on the existing railway network. This creates room for more passenger and freight services. This is particularly significant on routes where freight and passenger trains previously competed for the same railway paths.The project also points to a larger shift in India’s logistics architecture. The DFC network connects industrial and manufacturing centres with logistics hubs and ports, potentially making the movement of goods more predictable and efficient. This matters because the objective is not simply to make individual freight trains faster, but to improve the efficiency of the wider supply chain.
Transformation impact of Dedicated Freight Corridors
Experts see the completion of the dedicated freight corridor network a key milestone that has the potential to be transformational for the logistics sector.“By enabling higher wagon count per rake and faster freight trains, including double-stack container operations, the DFC improves rail productivity, asset utilization, and transport economics,” says Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, Senior Director and Global Head, Consulting at Crisil Intelligence.“It strengthens connectivity between ports, industrial clusters, logistics parks and hinterland markets, facilitating more efficient movement of both containerized and bulk commodities,” he tells TOI.“The resulting reduction in transit times will result in improved service reliability, expanded market access and lower logistics costs. This can significantly enhance India’s supply-chain efficiency, manufacturing competitiveness, and export performance,” he explains.According to Jaffrey Thomas, Partner – Transport and Logistics, PwC India, while completion of the Dedicated Freight Corridors is a significant milestone and achievement, its impact on logistics cost, modal share of rail and economic efficiency will be significantly enhanced with four factors:
- Standardizing and upgrading peripheral feeder connectivity into the DFC
- Introducing competitive pricing models such as GTKm-based-pricing across all cargo and container categories
- Innovative products such as assured transit slots
- Development of Gati Shakti terminals and MMLPs with DFC-grade connectivity along the corridor
Logistics costs to be lower, enhanced modal share for railways
Modal shift from roadways to railways is the way ahead via dedicated freight corridors, feel experts. Indian Railways has been looking to get its modal share of cargo movement across the country for some years now. With an extensive roadways and highways network, railways was facing stiff competition. Now, with the completion of the DFC, a reliable transport chain is established.Jagannarayan Padmanabhan says that the rail coefficient across the WDFC is at 20% that is the rest of the cargo is being moved by roads. “While there would be some impact on the passenger train operations by freeing up of capacity, the main impact would be the modal shift from Road to Rail,” he says.Jaffrey Thomas of PwC India sees the incremental capacity on both these routes releasing vital track capacity, easing congestion and improving transit speeds. In both the freight and passenger businesses, this should allow Indian Railways to introduce innovative and competitive transit products.“This incremental capacity coupled with the right set of planning tools should enable the much-sought reliability in transit times. Faster transits will also allow for improved returns from investments in rolling stock,” he tells TOI.In fact, Indian rail freight is among the most cost-efficient freight transport modes, with costs of around Rs 1.96 per tonne-km from terminal to terminal (compared with ~Rs 2.3 per tonne-km in the USA), and is cheaper than road transport (~Rs 4 per tonne-km).However, Jagannarayan Padmanabhan notes that despite this advantage, railways accounts for only about 20% of freight movement, well below the levels seen in leading rail-based economies.“To increase rail’s modal share, the next phase should focus on expanding DFC capacity, accelerating the development of multimodal logistics parks, improving first- and last-mile connectivity, encouraging greater private sector participation, and strengthening port-rail integration. Together, these measures can further reduce logistics costs, improve freight efficiency, and enhance India’s global competitiveness,” he adds.
The bottom line
As India looks to be a major manufacturing hub, movement of goods assumes greater significance at lower costs. The Union Budget proposed a new Dedicated Freight Corridor connecting Dankuni in West Bengal with Surat in Gujarat, passing through Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.This 2,052-km corridor will integrate with the existing Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, enabling seamless movement of goods to ports along the west coast.The government has also previously examined DPRs for an East Coast corridor between Kharagpur and Vijayawada, an East-West network linking Palghar with Dankuni through Bhusawal, Nagpur and Kharagpur, another East-West sub-corridor from Rajkharsawan to Andal, and a North-South sub-corridor connecting Vijayawada, Nagpur and Itarsi. These have not yet been sanctioned.Finally, the success of the DFC network is not just about moving freight faster, but about creating more capacity, cutting logistics bottlenecks and making India’s railway network more efficient. With the next generation of freight corridors now being planned, the focus is shifting from completing the network to maximising the economic gains it can deliver: how much capacity it can free up elsewhere, and whether it can help India meet its larger logistics and freight targets.
