Freight Traffic On DFC Doubles, Now Handles 13% Of Railways' Load

Freight volume on India’s dedicated freight corridors (DFCs) has surged dramatically in the current financial year, with traffic now double that of the previous fiscal. This increase has significantly boosted the share of the DFCs in the overall freight handled by the country’s railway network. Both the eastern and western segments of the DFCs became operational last year, contributing to this rise.

According to sources from the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL), freight volume, measured in net tonne kilometers (NTKMs), reached 62,282 million between April and October 2024, which is equivalent to 292.4 million NTKMs per day. In comparison, during the same period in 2023, the figure was 32,164 million, or 151 million NTKMs per day. The rise in freight traffic is attributed to the 522 kilometers of DFC network that became operational in FY24, which includes 294 km of the eastern DFC and 228 km of the western DFC.
“We are expecting a further 20 per cent jump in freight traffic after the remaining 102 kilometers of stretch on the western DFC is likely to be completed by the end of 2025. The traffic earnings for FY25 are also expected to surpass previous records by a huge margin,” said an official from DFCCIL.

The western corridor’s Vaitarna-JNPT (Jawaharlal Nehru Port) section is the final segment of the project, which has faced delays due to execution challenges. Tata Projects was initially awarded the contract in 2017, but slow progress led to DFCCIL terminating the contract in 2022. However, this decision was reversed after Tata Projects committed to expediting the work.

The official noted that there has been a consistent shift of freight traffic from traditional railway routes to the DFCs. For instance, in July, the DFC carried about 10 per cent of the railway freight, a number which has risen to 13 per cent by October.

“Our mandate was to take over 70 per cent of the railways’ traffic on the sections running parallel to the eastern DFC and western DFC. In eastern DFC, which has been fully commissioned, we have already crossed 80 per cent. On western DFC, the number stands below 60 per cent. This is despite the fact that DFC covers just four per cent of the rail network. We are running over 350 trains per day across the network,” the official added. There is further potential for increasing capacity, as the corridors are designed to handle up to 480 trains per day on average.

In terms of gross tonne kilometers per day (GTKMs), which includes the weight of wagons, engines, brake vans, and cargo, the DFC reported 106,277 million GTKMs between April and October 2024, an increase of nearly 80 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Traffic on the 1,506-km western DFC includes containers, cement, petroleum products, trucks-on-train, and small cargo, while the 1,337-km eastern DFC primarily handles coal, iron and steel, fertilizers, food grains, and containers.