Union Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi on Monday in a written reply in Rajya Sabha, said, “Ministry of Railways has sanctioned construction of two dedicated freight corridors (DFC); i.e. Eastern and Western DFCsâ€.
“MOR has decided to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the following three new Dedicated Freight Corridors as East-Coast Corridor (Kharagpur to Vijayawada:1115 KM), East-West Sub-corridor, (Palghar-Bhusawal-Nagpur-Kharagpur-Dankuni: 2163 KM and Rajkharsawan-Kalipahari-Andal: 195 KM); North-South Sub-corridor (Vijayawada-Nagpur Itarsi: 975 KM)”, he said.
National Mineral Policy, 2019 inter alia provides that dedicated mineral corridors shall be planned to facilitate the transport of minerals from mining areas in the hinterland along with encouraging the local evacuation networks to be built in an integrated manner, the Ministry of Mines informed.
Maximum moving dimensions on DFC will be more liberal and comparable to world standards to permit heavier and longer trains. The DPRs for the DFCs are prepared by aligning the requirement of the evacuation of minerals also from the hinterland.