As per an official order of the Railways Board, the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) will be used for passenger movement, in the case of emergencies. The decision is being touted beneficial to passengers on Delhi-Howrah and Delhi-Mumbai routes, each of them counted as one of the busiest railways routes in India. The DFCs have been laid to facilitate exclusive high speed movement of freight trains.
According to sources quoted in a PTI report, this move will come into effect in case of natural calamities or train accidents, where passengers will be transported to their destinations on the parallel DFC network.
As per the Railways’ officials, the DFCs are meant for only high speed freight trains to run and there aren’t any provisions for running passenger trains on them. Therefore, such passenger trains will be shifted to DFCs only under exclusive circumstances. Moreover, the report also says that 80% DFCs are laid along the Delhi-Horwah and Delhi-Mumbai routes.
The report further said these busy railway routes witness disruptions if there is a breach in the rail tracks due to any reason. This results in more congestion as well as diversion of train services, affecting the overall operations, the report added.
