The Hindu Business Line : Freight corridors: GPS-based signalling mooted <br> Dadri may be intersect point

THE Western and Eastern rail freight corridors are likely to intersect at Dadri, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. In terms of rail infrastructure, Dadri already has an inland container depot of the Container Corporation of India (Concor).

RITES, the PSU Mini-ratna consulting firm, has recommended that the two double-line rail freight corridors be linked to each other at Dadri. The public sector unit was asked to conduct the pre-feasibility route survey study by its parent body — the Ministry of Railways — and it recently submitted its report.

Western and Eastern Corridors: The Western rail corridor will connect Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Mumbai, and Tughlakabad, Rewari as well as Dadri, near the National Capital Region, through the States of Gujarat, Rajasthan (Ahmedabad, Palanpur, Vadodara), according to the RITES recommendations.

The Eastern corridor, it is proposed, will connect Ludhiana (the hub of international trade in Punjab) and Sonnagar (Bihar) through Mughal Sarai, Kanpur, Khurja, Meerut, Saharanpur and Ambala.

RITES has also identified feeder and dispersing routes for and from the corridor and recommended their upgradation so that the rolling stock to be used on the dedicated freight corridor (heavier wagons) can be moved on those routes as well. "The two corridors will bypass the major cities en route to ensure faster mobility for goods traffic," said an official.

Axle load and traction: The axle load for the trains is likely to be 25 tonnes as against 20.32 tonnes or 22.5 tonnes (for some stretches), at present. And it is likely to go up to 30 tonnes eventually.

As for traction, while the Western corridor is likely to have diesel traction, the Eastern corridor may be electrified to permit easy transference of trains between the existing network and the new corridors. The present Western route, via Rajasthan, is still on diesel traction, while the Eastern route is electrified.

Signalling systems: RITES has also recommended that, unlike the conventional, track-side signals, state of the art Global Positioning System (GPS)-based cab signalling should be used for the rail corridors, with stations situated about 50 km apart, against the present inter-station spacing of seven km.

By using GPS-based cab signalling, the exact position of the trains can be monitored on computer screens in the locomotives. This would ensure that the speed of the trains is automatically adjusted to maintain a minimum distance — of about four to five kilometres — between two trains at any given time.

Speed: On the new freight corridors, the current average goods train speeds of 25 kmph is expected to "at least double". This would reduce the overall requirement of wagons and locomotives — resulting in minimising logistics and transportation costs, explained the official.

The primary aim was to create rail infrastructure to carry high levels of freight, while reducing transportation and inventory costs, speed up freight operations and bring about higher productivity through better utilisation of Railways' assets, the official added.

The recommendations are based on the need to have better rail infrastructure to transport increasing numbers of containers from the ports on the Maharashtra and Gujarat coasts into the hinterland, as also additional coal and steel from Eastern India to feed the power plants and industries in the North. Thus the need is to have a dedicated freight corridor along the existing routes which, while largely independent, would also have inter-connectivity with the existing routes at terminals and at principal traffic entry and exit points. The Railway Ministry has forwarded the RITES recommendations to the Planning Commission for its comments, a top Ministry official told Business Line.

Organisational structure and finance: As for the organisational structure, while it has broadly been decided that the corridor will be managed by a special purpose vehicle, with a controlling stake held by the Railways, the finer details are yet to be worked out, according to Ministry officials. The financing pattern will reflect the ownership, though there is need for raising external finances. The Western and Eastern rail corridors are expected to cost Rs 20,000-30,000 crore.

The Railway Budget is likely to have an indication of the funding pattern for the dedicated corridors. The Railways will also need to have technology transfer tie-ups with other countries for tracks, bridges, design of wagons, and signalling systems for the freight corridors.

The Railways has decided to undertake freight corridor construction along the Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Mumbai arms of the Golden Quadrilateral, as they are the most intensively used and have the maximum traffic density. At nearly 10,000 km, the Golden Quadrilateral and its diagonals, connecting the metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, constitute less than 16 per cent of the Indian Railways route length, but move 54 per cent of the traffic.