The future of the railways in India for the next five years will depend on how quickly it can activate three major projects — the east and west dedicated freight corridors (DFCs), transport of coal from three areas with huge deposits, and getting back smaller freight consignments, said senior railway officials.
Having been reconciled to the hard political reality of having to subsidise passenger operations, the railways now have to rely on freight raising revenue. Most of the existing tracks that carry the bulk of the freight traffic have become “super saturated”.
Industrial growth will depend on how quickly the railways can activate the eastern and western Dedicated Freight Corridors (broadly Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah) and begin work on similar tracks between Howrah and Chennai, Delhi and Chennai and Chennai to Mumbai via Vijayawada.