How the plan to build DFCs became an escape route to delay high speed of IR !

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The plan of upgrading the 2 DFC routes will be delayed by at least 15 years

Alok Kumar Verma, IRSE (Rtd.)

How the plan to build Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) became an escape route to delay higher speed on the Indian Railway network.

When the DFC project was announced, Railway Board said, “when DFC is built in 5 years, upgradation work for raising speed on Delhi-Howrah and Delhi-Mumbai lines will be started”.

The original plan was to start upgrading these 2 vital routes in 1997-2002, but it was put on the back-burner.

As time passed traffic reached saturation levels, making it difficult to undertake upgradation of track.

As I have said instead of the DFCs, new 200-250 kmph lines should have been built.

Today the situation is that the DFCs won’t be completed in the next 5 years.

So, the plan of upgrading the above 2 routes will be delayed by at least 15 years (2010-25).

Another question arises: Why did Railway Board not start upgradation works on the other routes where congestion was not there in 2005?

Even now there are many routes with no congestion where upgradation can be undertaken.

China raised speed on its existing trunk routes between 1997-2007 in stages to 160 kmph, 180 kmph and finally 200 kmph.

European and several other Railways also did it in the same manner in 1970s and 80s.

The fact that India still does not have a single line with 200-250 kmph speeds shows that Railway Board is not serious about Raising Speed.

In fact instead of Ahmedabad-Mumbai Bullet Train line (on Standard Gauge), we should have built a 200-250 kmph Conventional High-Speed line on Broad Gauge that would have been much cheaper and far more beneficial, except that it would take 3 hrs from Mumbai to Ahmedabad whereas the Bullet Train can do it in 2 hour 15 minutes.

What can be done now:

  1. First take a policy decision that no more Bullet Train lines and DFC lines for next 15 yrs.
  2. Upgrade existing lines, wherever feasible, and build new Conventional High Speed lines for 200-250 kmph.
  3. Convert ongoing Eastern and Western DFCs to normal mixed traffic lines. It is doable.

This way we can build about 15,000 to 18,000 km Conventional High Speed lines to cover four ends of the country at an expenditure of about INR 6 lakh crore.

Now consider that at the current rate of INR 300 crore per km, that amount will be needed to build a line from Delhi to Chennai.

Will Railway Board bite the bullet and revise its plans?

Else, travel by car and airplanes will go on booming causing much harm by way of Climate change, diversion of land, air pollution in cities and congestion on the roads.

#DFC #IndianRailways #RailwayBoard