Chamatkaar hoga,” says Lalu Prasad on how the new, dedicated freight corridor the Railways has on the drawing board will change the face of freight movement in the country. Coming from a man blessed with the gift of gab, it’s easy to dismiss his reading as an overstatement. But one look at the lines being drawn by the Railways suggests the minister’s bluster has some basis. The Railways is thinking big and well into the future.

But first the present. The Golden Quadrilateral, which connects Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, along with its two diagonals, is the main mover of rail freight traffic. Although it accounts for just 16 per cent of track area, it carries 66 per cent of the total freight transported by the Railways. And following the freight traffic growth of 50 per cent in the past three years, it’s facing saturation, to the point where the Railways is plying more trains on some routes than it should be doing. The

Delhi-Howrah route has a line utilisation of 114-160 per cent, Delhi-Mumbai 115-150 per cent.

With freight traffic in the country expected to grow at 18-20 per cent a year, the Railways desperately need new lines, especially on the busy Golden Quadrilateral route. So, on the drawing board is a dedicated freight corridor that connects these metros after winding its way through important mineral belts and touching major ports. The complete project is still taking shape, but officials involved in its working are talking of a total capital cost of — hold your breath — Rs 65,000 crore.

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