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Informist, Thursday, Apr. 9, 2026

 

 

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--Official: Mulling 7 more dedicated freight corridor proposals
--Official: May propose freight corridor between Prayagraj, Bengaluru
--Official: May propose freight corridor between Mumbai, Chennai
--Official: Dankuni-Surat freight corridor to be completed in 6 years
--Official: Dankuni-Surat freight corridor cost estimated at INR 2 trln
--Official: Dankuni-Surat freight corridor cost may rise to INR 2.5 trln
--Official: Freight traffic declined in Mar due to West Asia war

 

 

By Anand JC and Shakshi Jain

 

NEW DELHI – The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corp. of India Ltd. is mulling over proposals for seven additional dedicated freight routes, including those connecting Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh to Bengaluru in Karnataka, and Mumbai in Maharashtra to Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Shobhit Bhatnagar, director of operations and business development, told Informist Wednesday. He did not disclose the names of the other proposed corridors and other details such as costs.

 

 

The company, a special purpose vehicle under the Ministry of Railways, develops dedicated freight corridor projects with separate tracks for cargo traffic. Apart from the seven proposals mentioned above, detailed project reports for three more corridors had been submitted to the ministry in 2024, Bhatnagar said.

 

One corridor would run along the eastern coast connecting Dankuni in West Bengal to Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh while the other connects Itarsi in Madhya Pradesh to Chennai. There is no clarity yet on how soon the approvals for these two corridors will come through, Bhatnagar said.

 

The third project got the Centre's nod earlier this year. This 2,052-kilometre-long corridor connects Dankuni in West Bengal to Surat in Gujarat. It will connect West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. Talks are already underway with states, including Chhattisgarh, regarding acquisition of land, which has traditionally been a bottleneck for freight corridors.

 

Land acquisition for this corridor is expected to be completed in 1.5 years and the project is expected to be executed 4.5 years thereafter. The project cost is estimated to be INR 2 trillion, though costs may rise by the time land is acquired and construction starts. "We may see some cost escalation in this... completion cost (of the project) may come out to be about INR 2.47 trillion," Bhatnagar said.

 

This corridor is expected to handle 120 trains per day in each direction, making it 240 trains per day. Currently, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corp. has a capacity of 480 trains per day after the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor became operational.

 

Two dedicated freight corridors--the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor and the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor--are already functional. The Eastern Dedicated Freight corridor became functional in April 2024. While the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor has completed all trials last week and is yet to commence end-to-end commercial operations, large part of the corridor is already operational. Combined, these two corridors ran 406 trains on an average per day in 2025-26 (Apr-Mar), up 14% on year. In FY25, 356 trains plied on these two corridors on an average daily, 48% higher than in FY24.

 

While trials have been successfully completed on the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, commercial operations are yet to begin because of a slight delay in availability of certain equipment. This equipment was expected to be delivered from Spain but were delayed due to the West Asia war. Commercial operations are now expected to start in April as against Mar. 31.

 

The Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor starts from Sahnewal in Punjab, passes through Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand, and ends at Dankuni in West Bengal. Meanwhile, the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor starts from Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, and passes through Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and ends at Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai.

 

Freight transportation through the eastern corridor is dominated by coal and mineral products while the western corridor sees heavier flow of containerised, industrial, and export-import goods as they connect to major ports such as Mundra, Kandla, and Hazira in Gujarat. Currently, nearly 71% of India's freight is ferried through roadways, compared to 28% through rail. The Centre has set out a target to increase railways' share in freight transportation to 45% by 2030.   

 

The war in West Asia also affected the number of trains using the two corridors, Bhatnagar said. "There was some reduction in freight traffic in March, we had achieved around 460 (trains per day) in February and then we came down to 442 trains per day," Bhatnagar said.

 

The corridor sees peak train movement between December and April. "It is not a good sign for that period (decline in freight traffic along the corridors), but transport is always a derived demand," Bhatnagar said. "If the industry is working well, they will book trains, transportation will come," he said.  End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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