But DFCs are meant to do that, aren’t they, be dedicated? In the process, they free up capacity elsewhere.Often, people do not notice what the Union Budget says about Indian railways (IR). Points that may register are the following. (a) There is a National Rail Plan (NRP) for 2030. (2) Western dedicated freight corridor (DFC) and Eastern DFC will be commissioned by June 2022. Parts of DFC will be in PPP mode. (3) There will be an East Coast corridor (Kharagpur to Vijaywada), East-West corridor (Bhusaval to Kharagpur/Dankuni) and North-South corridor (Itarsi to Vijayawada). (4) All broad-gauge routes will be electrified by December 2023. (5) There will be safety and passenger amenity measures. One hundred years before 2030, in 1930, Mumbai-Pune Deccan Queen was started. This is the only train with an official birthday, on June 1, 1930. IR has come a long way since 1930, and down the years, several committees have probed IR’s erosion in competitiveness and suggested solutions….
