New Delhi: Due to the impact of novel coronavirus outbreak, the timeline to complete Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor has been extended for 6 months and will be completed by June 2022, said Chairman Railway Board, Vinod Kumar Yadav, on Thursday.
Earlier, it was planned to be completed by December 2021, aiming to decongest railway network, increase freight capacity and to ensure faster movement of goods.
"The project had come to a halt for two-months due to COVID-19 induced nationwide lockdown. We are trying to get back all our workers. Dedicated Freight Corridor will be commissioned and June 2022 is our target," said the Railway official.
He informed that the eastern and western dedicated freight corridors are expected to see investments of around Rs 81,459 crore. Railways also has a plan for four new corridors by 2030 which will be financed under public-private partnership.
Yadav said that in spite of the COVID-19 outbreak, the freight loading in August has also been increased by 7 per cent as compared to the last year. Railways is also working out on a 'Zero-based timetable' which will have separate timings for passenger trains, freight trains and maintenance so that the speed-up operations of freight trains will continue even after the resumption of passenger services.
As per the data, the freight loading done by Railways on 19th August 2020 was 3.11 million tonnes, which was 2.97 million tonnes on the same date of last year.
Railways is even considering to use India post services for last-mile connectivity for consignment all across the nation. The pilot project was carried out by Central Railways in Maharashtra to send ventilators from Nagpur to Mumbai, during the nationwide lockdown.
To enhance the capacity of Indian Railways, Yadav said that 11,500 km tracks, which are still single line will be doubled, while multi-tracking will be done on 2500 km by March 2024.
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