PM to inaugurate section of dedicated freight corridor today

The section will open new vistas for the local industries and also decongest the existing Kanpur-Delhi main railway line

PRAYAGRAJ : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the new Bhaupur-New Khurja section of eastern dedicated freight corridor (EDFC) via videoconferencing on Tuesday. During the event, the PM will also inaugurate EDFC’s operation control centre at Prayagraj.

UP governor Anandiben Patel, chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Union minister Piyush Goyal along with local MPs Rita Bahuguna Joshi (Prayagraj) and

Keshari Devi Patel (Phulpur) will also be present on the occasion. The 351-km section is situated in the state and is built at a cost of Rs 5,750 crore.

The section will open new vistas for the local industries such as aluminium industry (Pukhrayan region of Kanpur Dehat district), dairy sector (Auraiya), textile production/block printing (Etawah), glassware industry (Firozabad), pottery products (Khurja in Bulandshahr district), asafoetida production (Hathras) and locks and hardware (Aligarh), said chief public relation officer (CPRO) of EDFC, Ved Prakash. The section will also decongest the existing KanpurDelhi main line and will enable Indian Railways to run faster trains. A state-of-the-art operation control centre at Prayagraj will act as the command centre for the entire route length of the EDFC. The OCC is one of the largest structures of its type globally, with modern interiors, ergonomic design and best-in-class acoustics. The building is environment-friendly with a green building rating of GRIHA4 and is built as per norms of the ‘Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan’.

The EDFC (1856 route km) starts from Sahnewal near Ludhiana (Punjab) and will pass through Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand to terminate at Dankuni in West Bengal.

It is being constructed by Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) that has been set up as a special purpose vehicle to build and operate dedicated freight corridors.DFCCIL is also constructing the western dedicated freight corridor (1504 route km) that connects Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai and will traverse through the states of UP, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.