A direct Western Dedicated Freight Corridor connection to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust became operational on Tuesday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated three key sections, a development expected to shift freight trains away from busy passenger routes and improve the punctuality of Mumbai-bound local, mail and express services.
The newly opened sections connect New Sanjan with New Makarpura, New Umbergaon with New Safale, and New Safale with New JNPT. Their commissioning gives JNPT an end-to-end link to the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor for the first time, according to information shared by Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) managing director Praveen Kumar.
The 1,504-kilometre electrified double-track route between Dadri and JNPT is now operational. The corridor can handle double-stack container trains, allowing containers to be carried one above another. The report said trains of around 1.5 kilometres can carry up to 250 containers on the freight route.
Railway officials said the dedicated line would reduce congestion on routes shared by freight and passenger trains. Before the freight connection became available, around 15,000 containers were reportedly held up at JNPT. That backlog has fallen to about 2,000, officials said, as freight trains began using the separate route. The change is expected to help move containers from the port to destinations across the country more quickly and improve the flow of traffic within the port system.
The corridor is currently handling about 430 freight trains a day, with preparations under way to increase capacity further. DFCCIL officials also said the separate freight route could help improve the speed and punctuality of passenger trains in the Mumbai division, including suburban locals, mail and express services and Vande Bharat trains. Any increase in passenger services will depend on operating decisions by the railway authorities.
Officials cited the experience of the Prayagraj and North Central railway divisions, where passenger-train punctuality was reported to have improved from 45 per cent to 95 per cent after the freight corridor became operational. The figure was presented as an indication of the potential benefit for other divisions, rather than as a current performance measure for Mumbai services.
The inauguration also brought renewed attention to a proposed future connection between the freight corridor and Vadhavan Port, which is being developed in Palghar district. Officials are considering linking the port through a station in the Vadhavan area. The planned rail connection is intended to support the movement of containers from the port to destinations across India, although the report did not provide a construction schedule or completion date for that link.
DFCCIL officials said the wider freight-corridor project, estimated at about Rs 76,000 crore, is intended to strengthen connections between ports, railways and roads. Multimodal logistics parks are also being developed at various locations along the network. The Union government has set a target of reducing logistics costs to about 7-8 per cent and increasing the share of freight transported by rail instead of road.
The immediate operational milestone is the opening of the three sections linking JNPT to the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor. The next major developments will be the expansion of freight capacity and further planning for the proposed Vadhavan Port connection.
