New era of freight rail revolution! PM Narendra Modi inaugurates EDFC's Bhaupur-Khurja section by flagging off Alstom’s WAG 12 e-Locos

In a landmark moment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first fully operational section of Dedicated Freight Corridor on Tuesday via video conferencing. The 351-km section, which has been built at a cost of Rs 5,750 crore, will open new avenues for local industries in Uttar Pradesh.

"Till 2014, not a single km track for dedicated freight corridor was laid. When work was restarted, the budget had gone up by 11 times," PM Modi said. "On coming to power, we changed work culture with focus on improving rail infrastructure. Reforms have been carried out at all levels," PM Modi added.

EDFC’s Bhaupur – Khurja section where Alstom has designed and delivered as an integrated System, the Electrification (Power Supply and OHE + OHE components), Signalling and Telecommunication systems. Execution of civil works, as well as site installation and commissioning were part of the overall delivery.

Two fully loaded freight trains hauled by Alstom’s WAG 12 eLocomotives, each carrying more than 10,000 Tonnes of coal and food grains took off from Bhaupur & Khurja respectively. This marked the inauguration of the 351 km New Bhaupur-New Khurja stretch of the EDFC. These tracks have been tested to carry heavy loads at speeds of 100 kms per hour.

The main dignitaries who joined the event virtually included, Governor of Uttar Pradesh Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath and Minister of Railways, Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution, Government of India Piyush Goyal and newly appointed MD DFCCIL Ravindra Kumar Jain.

Commenting at this momentous occasion, Alain SPOHR, Managing Director, India & South Asia, Alstom said, “Congratulations to DFCCIL, PMC and their teams, and kudos to our Alstom teams for doing an outstanding job with many “firsts in India” on this first fully completed electrified section of DFC. Alstom is proud to have introduced several ‘firsts’ in India to ensure speedy execution on this project. This is also a good reference of Alstom’s commitment to Make-in-India. The complete design and engineering for OHE Electrification, Civil, Power Supply, Signalling has been done indigenously. This begins a new era of freight rail revolution that all stakeholders envisioned jointly. It is indeed an honour to be partnering in India’s Make-in-India mission.”

"With this section now operational, the existing Kanpur-Delhi main line is expected to be decongested and will enable Indian Railways to run faster trains while also opening new vistas of opportunity for the local industries such as aluminium (Pukhrayan region of Kanpur Dehat district), dairy (Auraiya district), textile production / block printing (Etawah district), glassware (Firozabad district), pottery products (Khurja of Bulandshahr district), asafoetida production (Hathras district) and locks and hardware (Aligarh district)." Alstom said in a statement.