India and its construction of major rail freight corridors AUTHOR The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation The line capacity utilisation on the existing highly of India Limited (DFCCIL) is a public sector saturated shared trunk routes of Howrah to Delhi Phil Kirkland undertaking (PSU) corporation run by the on the Eastern corridor, and Mumbai to Delhi on CEng MICE, FPWI government of India’s Ministry of Railways the Western corridor varied between 115% to PWI Vice President to undertake planning, development and 150%. The increasing requirement for electrical (North England mobilisation of financial resources and power generation required heavy coal movement, Sections) construction and maintenance and operation of booming infrastructure construction and growing the new DFCs (dedicated freight corridors). international trade which led to the conception Phil is an experienced of the GQFCs. Carbon emission reduction from Railway Engineer of Under the eleventh five year Plan of India (2007– these DFCs will help DFCCIL claim carbon 47 years continuous 12), the Ministry of Railways commenced new credits. service, beginning in 1973 with British Rail in DFCs routes namely, the Eastern and Western Newcastle and more recently retiring as Head freight corridors. The two routes cover a total Western dedicated freight corridor (Western DFC) of Maintenance Delivery at Nexus Metro length of 3,360 kilometres (2,090 mi). is broad gauge (5 ft 6 ” / 1676 mm) connecting (Tyne and Wear PTE). India’s capital, Delhi and its economic hub, GOLDEN QUADRILATERAL Mumbai. This corridor will be 1483 km in length Phil has worked in the rail industry worldwide, FREIGHT CORRIDOR (GQFC) and will be electrified with double line operation. specifically in the areas of track inspection, A single line branch is proposed from Pirthala to maintenance, renewal, mechanised GQFC has six proposed DFCs; two having been Tughlakabad. maintenance, high output systems, railway implemented early as mentioned above. The rules, regulations, policies, processes and all funding for the remaining four was approved Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (Eastern DFC) safety matters. in January 2018. The GQFC consists of the is broad gauge (5 ft 6 ” / 1676 mm) connecting rail routes linking the four largest metropolitan Ludhiana in Punjab and Dankuni (near Kolkata) in cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata West Bengal. The route will mostly have double and the two diagonals North-South dedicated tracks. It will be electrified with the section from freight corridor (Delhi-Chennai) and East-West Ludhiana in Punjab to Khurja (Bulandshahr) dedicated freight corridor (Kolkata-Mumbai). in Uttar Pradesh (400 km) being a single line These carry 55% of Indian Railway’s freight traffic electrified due to lack of space. This freight over a total of 10,122 km (6,290 mi) route length. corridor will cover a total distance of 1839 km. See image 1. FINANCING APPROVED IN JANUARY 2018 The project will be funded by a loan of $4bn • East-West dedicated freight corridor - 2000 provided by the Japan International Cooperation km from Kolkata to Mumbai. Agency under special terms for economic • North-South dedicated freight corridor - partnership (STEP). The remaining funds will 2173 km from Delhi to Chennai. be provided through equity by the Ministry of • East Coast dedicated freight corridor, 1100 Railways. km from Kharagpur to Vijayawada. • South-West dedicated freight corridor, 890 km from Chennai to Goa. CONTRACTORS INVOLVED WITH THE WESTERN DFC PROJECT In May 2013, a consortium of Larsen & Toubro and the Japanese firm Sojitz was awarded a $100.97m contract to design and construct the 640 km twin-track line of the western DFC. The consortium was additionally awarded a $450,000 contract to supply and install 25kV, 50Hz electrification equipment on the 915 km Rewari-Vadodara section of the Western DFC in November 2014. The work included construction of seven traction substations (TSS), of which one is GIS-based, 40 switching sub-stations, and 897 track km of overhead line equipment (OLE). It also includes a SCADA (supervisory control and data Image 1: Golden quadrilateral freight corridor acquisition) system that works at 12 stations (GQFC). Image: DFCCIL. 40 and an operational control centre, along with the supply of all associated equipment. Traction power and auto transformers, as well as copper conductors for the project will be imported from Japan. In August 2015, Express Freight Consortium consisting of Mitsui, IRCON International and Tata Projects won a contract for track-laying and civil engineering work on two sectors between Vaitarana in the State of Maharashtra and Vadodara in the State of Gujarat. The consortium led by Hitachi and consisting of Mitsui and Hitachi India won a contract worth $27.13m for the supply and installation of signalling and telecommunications systems for Package 5 of the Western DFC in December 2015. Hitachi will produce key equipment for the signalling system, while Mitsui will provide overall co-ordination with DFCCIL and related agencies in Japan and India. Harsco NTC (new track construction machine) at work on the DFC. Hitachi India will procure and supply locally made products. The consortium was also awarded a contract worth $9.19m to supply and install an automatic train control system for Package 5A of the Western DFC in December 2015. SHORTER TRANSIT TIMES Construction of the two corridors will transform the way freight is transported in India. The DFC lines are being built for maximum speeds of up to 100 km per hour, compared to current average commercial freight speed of approximately 25 km per hour. The lines will also have a carrying capacity for 6,000 to 15,000 gross tonne freight trains with a 32.5-tonne axle load. The DFCs will allow much shorter transit times from the freight source to its destination. In some cases, the delivery time will be reduced by more than 50%. Increased volumes of cargo will be transported faster, cheaper and more reliably. The Re-build Railways Plan also includes measures to improve the overall safety of India’s railway system, with the introduction Image 2: Japan Railways Shinkansen infrastructure. Image: WCM/Matchka. of innovation and technology, such as a joint Image 3: Holland RRV Mobile Flash Butt Welding machine. Image: DFCCIL. Diagram and table 1. 41 venture with Australian company Track IQ, who will provide sensor-based systems to detect rail defects. An ambitious target to reduce accidents by 50% over two years has been set by Indian Railways. INCREASE IN TRANSPORT EFFICIENCY – ADDITIONAL 10,000 KM FOR FREIGHT TRAFFIC CAPACITY The DFCs were designed as heavy-haul traffic lines for 32.5 tonne axle load. Trains with double-stack cars (two maritime containers on top of each other) will travel on a fully 25 Kv electrified line at speeds up to 100 km/h. Several large coal mines and steel production facilities are located along the proposed Eastern DFC line. Container traffic is also predominant along the Western DFC route, arriving mainly from the Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT). By 2022, the port is expected to handle 5.29 million containers annually. Image 4: Plasser and Theurer (Plasser India) 09-3X Dynamic Tamping Machine. Image: WCM/ Plasser India. In January 2006, RITES, an internal engineering consultancy set up by the Indian Government, submitted a feasibility report for the two corridors. RITES proposed the route and length of the corridors. The project is being executed in several phases, with significant Japanese input, support and influence. Approximately 67% of the construction costs of the Western DFC is funded by a loan of $4bn from Japan. The remaining funds are provided in equity by the Ministry of Railways. The Eastern DFC is constructed through funds received from the World Bank and the Ministry of Railways. Phase one included a 920 km segment of the western corridor between Rewari in Haryana to Vadodara in Gujarat, the 105 km Sonnagar (Bihar) to Mughalsarai (Uttar Pradesh) section and the 710 km Mughalsarai to Khurja (Uttar Pradesh) segment of the Eastern corridor. INFRASTRUCTURE DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS Image 5: Overhead line equipment assembly Eastern DFC. Image: WCM/World Bank. To their credit, Indian Railways engineers have fully researched and studied overseas railway operations (the very purpose of my series of articles for the PWI Journal), to learn and understand how and why others have chosen certain engineering strategies and policies. Particular focus has been on the Japanese Shinkansen routes, where operations and engineering are deemed to have strong similarities with Indian Railway aspirations. See image 2. A study has also been carried out in the USA and North America. INFRASTRUCTURE DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS - RAIL Indian Railways normally uses a variety of 52, 60 or 90 kg UTS rails in main lines. Standard 13 m rails are depot-welded into LWR (long welded rail), then site-welded into CWR (continuously welded rail) to reduce track maintenance costs and improve ride quality. For the DFC lines, it is planned to introduce UIC 60 and 90 kg UTS CWR, and 60 kg/m HH (head hardened) CWR on curves of less than 2 degrees (875 m radius). Image 6: DFC Plasser and Theurer (Plasser India) SVM 1000 Single line track laying machine. Image: WCM/Plasser India. 42 Image 7: Harsco NTC (New Track Construction Machine) at work on the DFC. Image: DFCCIL. INFRASTRUCTURE DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS – RAIL WELDING CWR that has almost no mechanical fish plated joints is the main criteria. Site welding is necessary to convert the LWR into CWR and this can of course introduce weakness, integrity, quality, reliability or safety issues. Following Japanese practice, four types of welding methods are used for rail welding: • FBW (flash butt welding) • GPW (gas pressure welding) • EAW (enclosed arc welding) • ATW (alumino-thermic welding). Image 8: Newly constructed DFC Permanent Way, alongside the existing rail lines.