The Railways to equip itself to haul maximum freight

To increase the carrying capacity of the freight corridor, the Railways has taken steps to procure 200 high horse power electric locomotives, including 40 locos from Japan. With the additions, the carrying capacity will rise to 6,000 tonnes per locomotive. “The import of locomotives from Japan is as per the Japanese loan condition since the western leg of the corridor is being funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency”. Of course, for the rest of the locomotives, the Japanese contribution will be restricted to technology and some components. It is said the freight corridor will be operational in three years. The flagship project of the Railways, comprising 3,373-km long DFC, has a western leg with 1534 km and the eastern leg, 1,839 km. length of lines. The western leg, beginning from JNPT in Mumbai to Tughlakabad and Dadri in Delhi, would mainly deal with the container transport between the existing and emerging ports in Maharashtra and Gujarat and the northern hinterland. The eastern leg will be from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni near Kolkata. When extended in future to include the proposed Kolkata deep sea port, it will, to a great extent, haul coal and steel.






www.sagarsandesh.com