When Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 306-km Rewari-Madar section of the Western Dedicated Freight corridor (WDFC) on Thursday, it was the world’s first ever double stack container rake hauled by electric locos.
Once completed, the WDFC will be a 1506-km long DFC connecting Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Maharashtra going via Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
PM Modi flagged off two trains – one from New Ateli in Haryana to New Kishangarh in Rajasthan and from New Kishangarh to New Ateli.
The 1.5 km long train from New Ateli consists of 90 BLC wagons and two brake vans with a gross weight of 4941 tons.
It had the following cargo loaded :-iron artware /aluminium artware and lamps from Moradabad area going to USA and Germany, furnishing items of Gurugram to UK; auto parts from Sonepat to USA; Steel products from Hisar to South and East Africa, tiles from Bahadurgarh to Croatia, besides wooden artware, lamps and decorative laminated sheets to Dubai and Indonesia.
Loading Points : Concor Multimodal Logistics Park, Kathuwas and ICD GarhiHarsaru (Gurugram) Gateway Rail
The long haul container rake from New Kishangarh was loaded from Pipavav and and Mundra ports. It has a gross weight of 5966 tons spread over 90 wagons and is bound for Tughlakabad and Dadri in the New Delhi area.
The rake contains spare parts, electric parts, machines, knitting machine, polyester fabric from United Arab Emirates. Other items include PVC material, paper, polymers, ethylene, auto components, copper tubes, furniture and aluminium coil and are loaded from the middle east gulf countries besides the Far East ( Indonesia and Singapore).
Rewari-Madar section fact file
The 306 km Rewari – Madar section was built at a cost of Rs 5800 crore. It falls in the states of Haryana and Rajasthan. About 79 km falls in Mahendragarh and Rewari districts of Haryana while approximately 227 km falls in Rajasthan’s Jaipur, Ajmer, Sikar, Nagaur and Alwar districts
This section contains 16 major bridges and viaduct (1 viaduct and 15 major bridges), 269 minor bridges, 4 Rail Fly Overs, 22 Road Over Bridges & 177 Road Under Bridges eliminating 148 Level crossings.
There are 9 newly built DFC stations in this section, six crossing stations – New Dabla, New Bhagega, New Sri Madhopur, New PacharMalikpur, New Sakun and New Kishangarh) and three junction stations – New Rewari, New Ateli and New Phulera.
Trial run
Dedicated Freight Corridor Company of India Limited (DFCCIL) had conducted an trial-run of BOXNS wagon freight trains on this section at 110 kmph. These wagons can carry 14 per cent more weight than the conventional wagons being used on Indian railways (IR).
DFCCIL also did trials of BLCS-A and BLCS-B wagon prototype used for long haul double stack containers at 100 kmph. These wagons have enhanced axle load of 25 ton and been designed for DFCCIL by RDSO. The design will maximize capacity utilization and uniform distributed and point loading.
Benefits
The opening of this stretch will benefit several industries in Rewari – Manesar, Narnaul, Phulera and Kishangarh areas of Rajasthan, Haryana and National Capital Region. In addition, the container depot of CONCOR at Kathuwas will also come on the DFC map.
The ports of Gujarat – Kandla, Pipavav, Mundhra, Hazira and Dahej will have an uninterrupted connectivity to the Northern parts of India. Seamless movement between the WDFC and the EDFC will happen once the connection between Khurja -Dadri – Rewari is completed.
Freight trains will be run at a maximum speed of 100 kmph on the WDFC. In sum, this will help in increasing the average speed of freight trains from the existing 26 kmph to 70 kmph on the DFC.
