PM Modi Criticises Delays In Dedicated Freight Corridor Project Before 2014

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday criticised delays in India’s Dedicated Freight Corridor project before 2014. He spoke in Vadodara after dedicating the final sections of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor.

PM Modi traced the project to 2004. A special company was established in 2006 to execute it. He claimed little physical work had progressed by 2014.

“The files were travelling from one table to another,” Prime Minister Modi said. “Unfortunately, even these files did not get a dedicated corridor. The files were stuck, hanging and wandering.”

Prime Minister Modi said the government had completed no part of the freight corridor in the seven to eight years before his government took office.

PM Modi credited voters in Gujarat and Vadodara for sending him to Delhi in 2014. He said his Gujarat experience shaped the project’s execution.

“We started the work of giving it speed as soon as we reached there,” he said.

The government has now completed more than 2,800 km of the corridor.

Prime Minister Modi said the Eastern and Western corridors will strengthen trade and commerce.

The final three WDFC sections cover 326 route kilometres and cost over Rs 20,700 crore. They include Sanand North-Makarpura, New Umbergaon-New Saphale and New Saphale-JNPT.

The entire DFC network is now operational. It separates freight traffic from passenger trains, improving capacity, transit times and industrial connectivity.

Vadodara’s programme involved projects worth over Rs 35,000 crore.

PM Modi dedicated the Jobat-Tanda railway line and launched three railway projects covering 329 km and costing over Rs 9,700 crore.

Three highway projects worth around Rs 1,780 crore and state projects worth around Rs 2,600 crore were included.

Also Read: India’s Freight Movement Set For Major Shift With DFC Network, Says PM Modi