Army carries out rail trials on Dedicated Freight Corridor
21 Jun 2021
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The Indian Army last week conducted a successful trial on the recently developed `Dedicated Freight Corridor’ by moving a military train loaded with vehicles and equipment from New Rewari to New Phulera, validating the efficacy of the DFC.
The intricate and synchronised coordination by the Indian Army with Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL) and Indian Railways will significantly enhance the mobilisation capability of the Armed Forces. These trials were part of the “Whole of the Nation Approach” for optimising national resources and achieve seamless synergy among various ministries and departments.
Interactions by the Indian Army with all stakeholders, including DFCCIL and Indian Railways will now assist in leveraging the DFC and allied infrastructure into the mobilisation matrix of Armed Forces. Development of infrastructure at certain locations to support mobilisation and trials to validate move of defence owned rolling stock on Roll On-Roll Off (RO-RO) service is being formalised and modalities are being evolved.
These trials herald the first step in this process to pave the way for enhancing the operational readiness of armed forces. This initiative would set in place processes to ensure that military requirements are dovetailed in the national infrastructure development at the planning stage itself, a defence ministry release stated.
The Dedicated Freight Corridor project being implemented by the Indian Railways provides faster movement of freight across the country.
Goods trains on the dedicated freight corridor (DFC) were running at speeds faster than Rajdhani trains, with one of them clocking a record speed of 99.38 kmph, according to officials.
On 29 May an empty train on its way to load coal clocked 99.38 kmph, completing its journey of over 300 km in just three hours and twenty minutes.
The three trains on the DFC ran at an average speed of more than 99 kmph on 29 May with the fastest being on the 331-km New Khurja-New Bhaupur section of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) which was opened for operations by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 29 December 2020.
