URAN: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday commissioned the final three sections of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC), which connects New Dadri in Uttar Pradesh with New JNPT in Maharashtra, providing the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) with a direct dedicated freight connection to north India.
The DFC has changed this…This corridor, these goods trains – fuel is saved, fare is saved, time is saved and the environment benefits. Maharashtra Governor Jishnu Dev Varma, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Sunetra Pawar were present at the inaugural event at JNPA. He described completion of the two corridors as a historic achievement for 21st-century India and linked it to his Gati Shakti push for faster connectivity.
The prime minister inaugurated the three sections – New Saphale-New JNPT, New Umbergaon-New Saphale and New Sanand (North)-New Makarpura, together covering 326 km and costing ₹ 20,700 crore – from Vadodara via video conferencing. The prime minister said that the freight corridor had brought down the time taken to cover 100 km from about 6.5 hours to nearly half – cargo that would take around 30 hours by truck could, in suitable cases, move through the dedicated corridor in 10-12 hours, he noted. Faster freight movement would help farmers by allowing fruits, vegetables, flowers and other perishables to reach markets on time, Modi said, referring to a double-stack train between JNPA and Vadodara, which carries cargo equivalent to more than 250 trucks.
Speaking on the occasion, he said, “Earlier, passenger trains and goods trains ran on the same track. They are the lifeline for accelerating the journey towards a Viksit Bharat,” Modi said. Fadnavis described the commissioning as a “revolution in the country’s logistics sector” and said that JNPA would benefit the most. Modi also took a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s “Chhatron Ki Goonj” campaign, referring to it as “jhooth ki goonj” (echo of lies). Modi said those trying to mislead people through the “echo of lies” could be found at every street corner, but India’s youth would move forward with the “resounding call of truth”.
“Today, the Eastern and Western DFC have become the main foundation of the country’s trade.
