The second wave of the pandemic has had an adverse effect on business operations and infra developments in the nation, owing to localised lockdowns imposed in the states, leading to a shortage of labour.
However, overcoming these hurdles, the Indian Railways has managed to keep the work on the Dedicated Freight Corridor going on with limited workforce of about 15,000, while goods trains are picking up maximum speed up to 97 kmph on the completed section.
With an aim to maintain the freight train efficiency in the country, currently about 15,291 people are working in the biological bubble to carry out the rail laying and other related work to make both the Eastern and Western Corridors fully operational.
A senior DFCC official informed that the ongoing restrictions in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Gujarat along with the shortage of labour and a severe shortage of industrial oxygen has adversely affected the progress structure and the shortage of industrial oxygen has slowed down liner cutting, welding operations and fabrication work pertaining to shuttering etc. and splitting/cutting steel pipes for casing of gas pipelines.
Despite the restrictions and the bumps in the way, they have created biological bubbles to continue the operations, said the official.
Construction activities are permitted where workers are available on site. However, the contractors are also facing difficulties in prestressing material coming from Mumbai as the city is under lockdown.
As far as the movement of staff and contractual labour is concerned, it is being allowed on passes which are being issued by the Railway Authority, the official informed.
Recently, the trial run of 353 km of Western DFC between New Palanpur to Madar and trial run of electric loco on Eastern DFC in the 100 Km New Ganj Khawaja to Chiraila Pauthu Section have been successfully done.
A total of 2,800 route km of the whole WDFC and EDFC (excluding the Sonnagar – Dankuni PPP section) is expected to be commissioned by June 2022.
The national transporter’s development will have immense contribution in the growth story of the nations’ industries, commerce, export and import, and it will help the nation meet its goal of becoming a five trillion-dollar economy.
The DFCC is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Indian railways with the responsibility of undertaking planning, development, and mobilisation of financial resources and construction, maintenance and operation of the “Dedicated Freight Corridors”.
The company in the first phase is constructing the Western DFC (1,506 Route km) and Eastern DFC (1,875 route km including the PPP section of Sonnagar-Dankuni).
The EDFC starting from Sahnewal in Ludhiana (Punjab) will pass through the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand to terminate at Dankuni in West Bengal, while the Western Corridor connecting Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) in Mumbai will traverse through the states of UP, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Source: Swarajya
