Winfred Phase 14: Railways Edition (Choo choo motherfuckas)
^^^Ari-budhiya
^^Sadko-ka
^Rail-ka
Bijli-ka
#Sabka pata batayega re tera Faizal!
So I've decided that I'll compile the info of 1 of the 5 segments every week, so each of them cycles every month. This week I'll compile info on Railways projects, next week you'd get the Air & water Edition.
#A. Last month’s developments
All the news shall be divided into zones: North, South, East and West. The details of these zones are expanded in this map:
North Zone
L.1 Delhi to Meerut in just 60 minutes! Superfast trains with luxury coaches being planned
L.2 Indian Railways to build another bridge over Yamuna to ease Ghaziabad-New Delhi congestion
South Zone
L.3 Elevated railway corridor across the length of Kerala proposed by KRDCL
L.4 Uday Express: Coimbatore-Bengaluru double-decker train to run from June 10
West Zone
L.5 Metro man E Sreedharan slams Narendra Modi's pet bullet train project
L.6 No fare hike for Mumbai's first air-conditioned local: Railways
Non-Zonal
L.7 Trains to run late on Sundays from August as Railways plans maintenance drive
L.8 Google says free WiFi now available at 400 railway stations
L.9 Railways clocks 7.5 per cent rise in April-May freight earnings
L.10 Take a look at Indian Railways' 'waterproof' engine than can haul rakes stranded in rains
L.11 10-pc drop in punctuality rate of trains: Northern Railways
#B. Project focus of the week: Dedicated Freight Corridors
The project involves the construction of six freight corridors traversing the entire country. The purpose of the project is to provide a safe and efficient freight transportation system. DFC has many freight loading terminals and no passenger railway stations/ terminals. Only freight trains run over DFC, stopping at designated freight loading/ unloading terminals. No passenger train is supposed to run on the DFC. Here's a table to detail the 6 routes planned:
| Dedicated Freight Corridor | Speed | Length (km) | Status | Start Point | Termination Point |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Western Dedicated Freight Corridor | 100 Km/hr | 1483 | Cleared in February 2008 by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs | Dadri | JNPT, Nava Sheva |
| Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor | 1839 | Cleared in February 2008 by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs | Ludhiana | Dankuni | |
| East-West Dedicated Freight Corridor | 100 Km/hr | 2000 | Announced in Budget 2016-17. | Kolkata | Mumbai |
| North-South Dedicated Freight Corridor | 2173 | Announced in Budget 2016-17. | Delhi | Chennai | |
| East Coast Dedicated Freight Corridor | 1100 | Announced in Budget 2016-17. | Kharagpur | Vijayawada | |
| South-West Dedicated Freight Corridor | 890 | Planned | Chennai | Goa | |
| Total | 9485 |
DFC, however, has a few technical specialties like heavier rails 68 Kg/meter (as against 60-52 Kg/m), stronger Permanent way, heavier axle loads 32 Tonnes (against 22.5-25 Tonnes), bigger dimensions of wagons etc.
The Routes
The starting and end points of the project are very similar to the major road projects of the Vajpayee govt: Golden Quadrilateral between the 4 metros along with a N-S and a E-W corridor. The alignment is however a bit different. The new alignment runs parallel to the existing trunk lines, they are however not built over them.
Progress
The priority of the projects, as I understand, is as follows: Western DFC > Eastern DFC > Others. Since this is an ongoing process, I'd like to share articles from 2018 for you to give you an idea of the progress of the projects:
Land acquisition on Indian freight corridors almost completed, March 8, 2018
Eastern DFC’s 340-km section may be commissioned in December
Behind schedule: Rethink on four planned dedicated freight corridors
Phase-I of East Rail Corridor to be complete by Sept
Personal remarks
India is in a rare plight of having so many of its production and consumption centres so far inland. Even in the peninsular part, marine transport has to circumnavigate about the southern tip if it has to reach the other coast (east/west). DFCs would bring the hinterland almost at par with the coastal areas in terms of industrial competitiveness. It will be India's Mississippi built in steel and gravel.
#C. Expert comments
#D. Guidlines
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No discussions about IT and data projects, nerds! Especially AADHAAR!! If you do so, you earn a demerit. What's a demerit, you ask?
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No operational trivialities about infrastructural projects, please. No, we don't want to know the salt content of the Palak Paneer served on your Delhi-Mumbai flight.
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Please refrain from inane political discussions.
#Twitter: @winfredditor
Posted Jul 3, 2018, 9:24 AM UTC · edited