Average speed of goods trains on DFCs increases to 40 km/hour: Anil Saini, MD, Alstom India Rolling Stock

However, it is to be seen if these speeds are maintained when restrictions are removed on passenger services.

Saini added that while the increasing speed of locomotives on the Western and Eastern DFCs has helped lower cargo movement time in India, a lot still needs to be done to reach the average speed goals of 75 km/hour average speed set by the Indian Railways.

The Indian Railways needs to install electric fencing around DFCs to prevent the slowing down of trains due to blockages, adopt digitisation, reduce maintenance and repair times, and set up more maintenance depots to speedily address technical faults on trains.

"In all foreign countries DFCs are well protected to not mitigate the speed of locomotives plying on them, similar systems and measures need to be adopted in India as well," Saini said.

Locomotive ramp-up

He added that along with measures to improve the performance and speeds of locomotives on DFCs the Indian Railways needs to address availability issues of locomotives to facilitate faster movement of goods.

"The Indian Railways wants to increase cargo movement through rail from around 1,500 million tonnes at the moment to 3,000 million tonnes by 2030. To do that they need to also increase the number of locomotives and as more locomotives are available for use, time wasted due to engine failures, maintenance issues will fall thereby increasing speeds," Saini said.

He added that at the moment the Railways operates around 7,000 locomotives for cargo movement, including a mix of electric and diesel locomotives.

Saini said that predicting the exact number of locomotives required by the Indian Railways to achieve its ambitious goal of transporting 30 million tonnes of cargo by 2030 is challenging. However, he expected the government to issue locomotive procurement orders in the next 2-3 years.

"Indian Railways can manufacture around 1,000 locomotives per year at their dedicated facilities and Alstom can manufacture around 100 locomotives per year. To double the cargo handling, the government will have to come out with a comprehensive roadmap soon," Saini said.

The WAG 12 electric locomotives produced by Alstom deliver 12000 HP which makes it the most powerful locomotive to run on Indian tracks with a capability to haul 6,000 tonnes of load on steep gradients.

Alstom will build and supply 800 such locomotives to the Indian Railways by March 2028. Indian Railways also has the option to increase the contract size by 200, a decision on the same is expected by 2025.

The contract to build 800 locomotives also includes their maintenance for over 13 years.

So far, Alstom has delivered 300+ electric locomotives to the Indian Railways and is currently maintaining a production rate of 100 locos per year from Madhepura. It expects the same delivery rate for 2023 as well.

Out of the 300+ electric locomotives delivered so far, Alstom maintains around 250 locomotives at Saharanpur maintenance depot and the remaining are maintained at its Nagpur Depot.

Saini added that Alstom has achieved 90 percent localisation for the manufacturing of its WAG12 locomotives and has trained nearly 30 primary suppliers involved, most of which are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have been established in India through the transfer of technology by Alstom.

"Only a few components are being exported from abroad. Similarly, localisation efforts are increasing for metro/regional trains as well," Saini said.

India’s ambitious DFC has reached 80 percent completion, with the Railways aiming to complete the project by June 2024.

The foundation for the ambitious project was laid 18 years ago, but it has seen more capital outlay and construction pace under the Narendra Modi government.

The DFC gamechanger

The DFC, once fully operational, is expected to be a game-changer for India since at present freight trains are made to wait for passenger trains on common rail lines, not an ideal situation for a fast-growing economy that aims to become an industrial superpower.

For example, as of now, freight trains from Mumbai take three days to reach Delhi. Once all sections of the DFC are complete, the duration will be reduced to 48 hours. The average speed of a freight train is 20 to 25 km per hour as of now. With the DFC, this would go up to 60 km per hour, government officials told Moneycontrol.

On an average day, around 140 trains ply the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor carrying items ranging from coal, steel, and iron to food grains.

The DFC covers nine states, spans 77 districts and involves approximately 11,000 hectares of land acquisition. Although it was given the go-ahead by the Union Cabinet in 2006, the project saw huge delays due to land acquisition problems and cost overruns.

The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL), in the first phase of the DFC project, is constructing the 1,504 route km of the Western DFC and 1,856 route km of the Eastern DFC.

The Eastern DFC will start from Sahnewal, and before terminating at Dankuni, West Bengal, it will pass through Haryana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. On the other hand, the Western DFC connecting Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to JNPT in Mumbai will pass through Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Haryana.

A recent CAG report stated the average speed of mail and express trains in the country during 2019-2020 was only 50.6 kmph despite spending Rs 2.5 lakh crore on track infrastructure between 2008 and 2019. Mission Raftaar project was envisaged in 2016-2017 to raise the average speed of both passenger and freight trains but there was no significant improvement.