Lok Sabha Question No. 5617 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-04-06
Subject: Dedicated Freight Corridor Scheme
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Parvesh Sahib Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5617 TO BE ANSWERED ON 06.04.2022

## DEDICATED FREIGHT CORRIDOR SCHEME

5617.   SHRI PARVESH SAHIB SINGH VERMA:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the plans of Railways to diversify its freight portfolio and increase market share in logistics and supply chain;
- (b)  whether  the  Government is planning to increase the load-bearing capacity  of  wagons,  average  speed,  grouping  of  similar-class  trains and other improvements such as the introduction of artificial intelligence in signalling and traffic systems, etc. and if so, the details thereof; and
- (c)  the  progress  made  under  the  Dedicated  Freight  Corridor  (DFC) scheme announced during the Union Budget 2021?

ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, COMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

(a) to (c):  A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (c)  OF UNSTARRED  QUESTION  NO.  5617  BY  SHRI  PARVESH  SAHIB  SINGH VERMA TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 06.04.2022 REGARDING DEDICATED FREIGHT CORRIDOR SCHEME

(a)   Indian Railways have taken a number of initiatives/steps to make the  freight  rates  competitive  which  include,  liberalized  automatic freight  rebate  policy  in  empty  flow  directions,  discount  granted  on loading of bagged consignment in open and flat wagons, 40% discount in  freight  to  fly-ash  traffic,  station  to  station  rate,  round  trip  based charging  for  container,  round  trip  traffic,  5%  concession  on  haulage charge  on  loaded  containers,  25%  concession  on  transportation  of empty containers and flat wagons, for expansion of container freight basket large number of commodities have been de-notified, etc.

In order to boost investment from industry in development of additional terminals for handling rail cargo, a new 'Gati Shakti MultiModal Cargo Terminal (GCT)' policy has been launched on 15.12.2021 and  the  target  is  to  commission  100  Gati  Shakti  Cargo  Terminals (GCTs) within the next three financial years, i.e. 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25.

Ministry  of  Railways  has  schemes  to  attract  private  investment  in General Purpose Wagons, Special Purpose/High Capacity wagons and Automobile  carrier  wagons.    During  2021-22,  procurement  of  around 150  rakes  has  been  approved  under  the  General  Purpose  Wagon Investment Scheme, Liberalized Special Freight Train Operator Scheme and Automobile Freight Train Operator Scheme.

(b)  In order to improve the share of Railways in the freight market and to make it more attractive, a number of measures have been adopted

such  as  increasing  the  axle  load  for  carrying  additional  traffic  per wagon, use of extensive computerization in freight operations, deployment  of higher capacity locomotives and higher capacity wagons, improvement in maintenance practices of wagons  and locomotives, improvement in track and signaling, training of staff and officers  to  adopt  new  technology  and  management  practices,  etc. Besides,  Remote  Diagnostic  and  Predictive  Maintenance,  based  on artificial intelligence, is also being tried in Signaling.

(c)  Presently, Ministry of Railways has taken up construction of two Dedicated  Freight  Corridors  (DFC)  viz.  Eastern  Dedicated  Freight Corridor  (EDFC)  from  Ludhiana  to  Sonnagar  (1337  km)  and  Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal (JNPT) to Dadri (1506 km).  Currently, 1110 km out of 2843 km of DFC has been completed.  Further Ministry of Railways has also sanctioned  for  the  survey/preparation  of  Detailed  Project  Report  for the Dedicated Freight Corridors viz East-Coast Corridor (Kharagpur to Vijayawada - 1115 km), East-West Corridor (Palghar-Bhusawal-NagpurKharagpur-Dankuni - 2163km and Rajkharsawan-Kalipahari-Andal - 195 km) and North-south Sub-corridor (Vijayawada-Nagpur-Itarsi - 975 km)

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