175-km section of freight corridor likely to be commissioned in six months
Nitish Sharma
Ambala, March 9
With the work on the Eastern dedicated freight corridor in its advanced stage, a 175.1-km section, from Sahnewal in Punjab to Pilkhani in Uttar Pradesh under the Ambala unit is expected to be commissioned in the next six months.
The project was divided into three parts — Sahnewal to Shambhu in Punjab, covering 81.6 km, Shambhu to Kalanaur in Haryana, covering 76.7 km and Kalanaur to Pilkahni in Uttar Pradesh, covering 16.8 km.
The work in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are being covered under Phase-I and Phase-II respectively, and the work in Haryana is being carried out as Phase-III of the project.
2,843-km project
Of the total 2,843-km project, 1,724 km has been commissioned, and the average speed of freight trains has increased from 25 km/hr to 65 km/hr. It will help in creating an additional rail transport capacity as freight trains will be shifted to the freight corridor, allowing an increase in the train traffic on the main line. —Pankaj Gupta, Chief general manager, Ambala unit, Dedicated freight corridor corporation .
A total of 14 new stations for the loading and unloading of goods and allowing crossings were to be built. The construction work of 11 stations has been completed, and the work related to the installation of equipment and machines, signalling and interlocking system has begun. The civil work of the remaining three buildings (New Mandi Gobindgarh, New Barara and New Darazpur) is expected to be completed in next couple of months.
Pankaj Gupta, chief general manager, Ambala unit, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited, said, “We are planning to commission the Phase-I and Phase-II developments by the end of May and Phase-III work of the project is expected to be completed by the month of July or August.”
He said, “Tracks are being laid. A lot of critical work has been completed in the last two years. All the bridges, 152 minor bridges, 47 major bridges and two important bridges over the Yamuna and Markanda have been constructed. Recently, two open web girder bridges were successfully launched on the National Highway-44 in Ambala.”
As the track crosses the defence area in Ambala, the project work here is taking a little more time to be completed. A CSD canteen is required to be demolished for the advancement of the project, and we are already in discussion with the Ministry of Defence to expedite the work, added Gupta.
“Of the total 2,843-km project, 1,724 km has been commissioned, and the average speed of freight trains has increased from 25 km per hour to 65 km per hour. The project will help in creating an additional rail transport capacity as freight trains will be shifted to the freight corridor, allowing an increase in the train traffic for passengers on the main line. It will also benefit the industrial sector as the trains will cover the required distance in lesser time, and transport more volumes of goods with reduced operational cost,” said Gupta.
