Railways will be able to run passenger trains "on demand" and free of "waiting" list on the busiest Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah routes in the next four years with the construction of dedicated freight corridors by 2021, Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav said on Tuesday.
He said construction of the dedicated freight corridor on these two routes by 2021, will enable cargo traffic to move from the existing lines, allowing more passenger trains to run on them.
"When the DFC (dedicated freight corridor) on these two routes are completed, the existing Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah route will be completely free of freight. Then we will be able to run passenger trains on demand. The work to upgrade (train speed on) the route to 160 kmph has already been sanctioned and will be done in the next four years.
"So, in the next four years, we will run freight and passenger trains on demand and this means we will meet traffic requirements. On these routes, in the next four years there will be no waiting,"Mr Yadav said.
He also said work on the North South (Delhi-Chennai), East-West (Mumbai-Howrah) and Kharagpur-Vijaywada dedicated freight corridors was underway and the final location survey will be completed in the next one year.
"These DFC's will be around 6,000-km long and will be commissioned in the next 10 years. When this is done we will have a lot of capacity and we will be able to run a lot of trains.
"So, by the time we have enough capacity we should be able to introduce private operators and corporatise production units, so that technologically advanced coaches fit to run trains at 160 kmph are available in the country and we are able to export them as well," Mr Yadav said.
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