(a) the details of freight carrying capacity of railways on different corridors/routes;
(b) whether the Railways propose to create more dedicated freight corridors for faster movement of goods;
(c) if so, the details thereof; and
(d) if not, the reasons therefor?
MINISTER OF THE STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI K. H. MUNIYAPPA)
(a) to (d): A statement is attached.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3214 BY SHRI VARUN
GANDHI TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 12.08.2010 REGARDING FREIGHT CAPACITY OF RAILWAYS.
(a): The Indian railway network carries both freight and passenger traffic on the same track, therefore only
overall capacity is relevant. During 2009-10, Railways have carried around 888 million tonnes of originating
freight traffic and around 7.4 billion originating passengers. Majority of the traffic moves on the routes
which connect the four metros of Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai. These are the High Density Networks
of Indian Railways. Majority of the sections on the High Density Network are saturated. Therefore to
begin with on two of the corridors viz. Delhi-Mumbai & Delhi-Howrah, Indian Railways have decided to
build the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor connecting Ludhiana to Dankuni and the Western Freight
Corridor connecting Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust to Tughlakabad/Dadri. On completion, these would add
substantial capacity for carrying freight traffic.
(b) to (d): Ministry of Railways has identified the following four future Dedicated Freight
Corridor projects for undertaking Preliminary Engineering cum Traffic Survey (PETS);-
(i) East West Corridor (Kolkata-Mumbai)
(ii) North South Corridor (Delhi-Chennai)
(iii) East Coast Corridor (Kharagpur-Vijayawada)
(iv) Southern Corridor (Goa-Chennai)