New Delhi, (Asian independent) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday will inaugurate the 351 km-long New Bhaupur-New Khurja section of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC), situated in Uttar Pradesh, to open new vistas of opportunity for the local industries such as aluminium, dairy and textile production.
The Prime Minister will also inaugurate EDFC’s Operation Control Centre (OCC) at Prayagraj in the event in which he will participate at 11 a.m. through video conference.
Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal will also be present on the occasion.
The Bhaupur-New Khurja section of EDFC was built at a cost of Rs 5,750 crore.
The section will open new opportunities for the local industries such as aluminium industry (Pukhrayan region of Kanpur Dehat district), dairy sector (Auraiya district), textile production/block printing (Etawah district), glassware industry (Firozabad district), pottery products (Khurja of Bulandshahr district), asafoetida or ‘hing’ production (Hathras district) and locks and hardware (Aligarh district). The section will also decongest the existing Kanpur-Delhi main line and will enable Indian Railways to run faster trains.
A state-of-the-art Operation Control Centre (OCC) at Prayagraj will act as the command centre for the entire route length of the EDFC. The OCC is one of the largest structures of its type globally, with modern interiors, ergonomic design and best-in-class acoustics. The building is environment-friendly with a Green Building rating of GRIHA4 and is built as per norms of the ‘Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan’.
The EDFC (1,856 route km) starts from Sahnewal near Ludhiana (Punjab) and will pass through the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand to terminate at Dankuni in West Bengal. It is being constructed by Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL), that has been set up as a special purpose vehicle to build and operate Dedicated Freight Corridors.
DFCCIL is also constructing the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (1,504 route km) that connects Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai and will traverse through the states of UP, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.