In the first phase, the Delhi-Mumbai and the Delhi-Howrah (from Ludhiana to Son Nagar) lines will be laid out at a total cost of Rs 22,400 crore (See map), and are scheduled to be completed in five to seven years. Freight traffic on the Delhi Howrah route mainly comprises minerals like coal and iron ore.

There isn’t substantial movement of containerised traffic (for lighter goods) — which forms bulk of the traffic on the Delhi-Mumbai route — on this route, though the numbers, both in absolute and percentage terms, are only expected to increase.

The Railways has also announced surveys for four other links on the Golden Quadrilateral: Delhi-Chennai, Howrah-Chennai, Howrah-Mumbai and Mumbai-Chennai. Says

R.K Singh, former chairman, Railway Board, in whose tenure the freight corridor project was first floated: “We need a dedicated freight corridor to service effectively the needs of a growing economy.”

A dedicated line, besides giving the Railways additional freight carrying capacity, will also address several glaring limitations of the current freight network, which do not enable the Railways to maximise the revenue-generation potential of this business. At present, goods trains run on the same lines as passenger trains, and get second preference. It’s quite common for 10-15 goods trains to be stopped to let an Express passenger pass. The proposed new freight corridor will be for freight trains only. As a result, their average speed is expected to rise several fold from the current 25 km per hour — Railways officials say the objective is to match the 150 km per hour that goods trains in China do.

... contd.