All About DFCCIL – History, Organisation, Objective

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) was incorporated on 30th October 2006 and registered under The Company Act, 1956. It is a company of the Ministry of Railways and is one of the largest rail transport infrastructure initiatives post-independence. This blog will cover the DFCCIL notes on its History, Organisation, Objective, Motto, Eastern Corridor, Western Corridor, Future Dedicated Freight Corridors and more.

DFCCIL Notes – History

The Ministry of Railways had shaped a plan to construct high-speed and high-capacity DEDICATED Freight Corridors stretching along the Golden Quadrilateral and its diagonals. 

DFCCIL has been given the responsibility to construct, maintain, and handle the operations of two corridors in the first phase. The two Corridors are:

•     Eastern Corridor which will run from Ludhiana to Dankuni via Dadri- Khurja link.

•    Western Corridor from Dadri to Jawaharlal Nehru Port with all attached infrastructure, so that Indian Railways and other operators can operate their Freight trains. 

Basically, DFCCIL will take the responsibility to construct, and seamlessly maintain and operate the infrastructure. 

The freight corridor, known as the Golden Quadrilateral, is a brainchild of the Indian Railways. It links the four metropolises (Mumbai, Chennai, Howrah, and Delhi). With its two diagonals, Mumbai- Howrah and Delhi- Chennai, its route length add up to 10122 kilometers.

With the growth of the Indian economy, a demand to increase freight transportation capacity through the railroad has also arisen. This ever-growing demand led to the construction of the new freight corridor in the Eastern and Western routes. Implementing the dedicated freight corridor plan was not an easy task. The Indian Railways decided to establish a special body that would plan, develop, mobilize resources to construct, maintain, and operate the freight corridors. For this purpose, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India was established.

DFCCIL notes on Objectives of DFCCIL 

The main objectives of DFCCIL are:

•    To complete the dedicated freight corridor with appropriate technology and highest quality standards and to do so within the estimated/ budgeted cost and stipulated time.

•     To increase the line capacity so that the Railways can regain its share of the freight transport sector.

•    It also provides safe, reliable, reasonable, and quick, efficient service to the public.

•    To support the Government’s initiative towards ecological sustainability, the corporation is encouraging the citizens to use Railways as it is the most environmentally friendly mode of transportation. It is cheaper, reliable, and safer to adopt. 

Motto of DFCCIL 

The motto of DFCCIL is sincerity, speed, and success, and following it to the hilt. 

Need and Importance of Eastern and Western Corridors

The Howrah to Delhi routes through the Eastern Corridor, and the Mumbai to Delhi routes on the Western Corridor are almost choking. The lines on these routes are being utilized between 115 percent to 150 percent. These routes mainly serve passenger traffic, but they are also used for coal transportation between the Eastern coal belt and the Thermal Power Houses in the Northern region of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh Punjab, Haryana, and also the ports of Maharashtra and Gujarat. This step was essential to ease the situation and enable the Railways to regain its lost freight traffic. 

DFCCIL notes on The Eastern Corridor

The route of the Eastern Corridor is 1861 kilometers long and is divided into six segments- 

1.    An electrified single-line segment between Ludhiana & Khurja- 401 kilometers.

2.    An electrified double-line segment between Khurja & Dadri- 46 kilometers.

3.    An electrified double-line segment between Khurja & Kanpur- 351 kilometers.

4.    An electrified double-line segment between Kanpur & Mughalsarai- 402 kilometers.

5.    An electrified double-line segment between Mughalsarai & Son Nagar- 126 kilometers.

6.    An electrified double-line segment between Son Nagar & Dankuni- 535 kilometers.

Owing to the non-availability of the area along the existing corridor near city centers and industrial townships, the corridor had to be given a roundabout route at several points. Under the scheme, several Junction arrangements are in the planning so that transfer of traffic from the existing corridor to the DFC and from the DFC to the existing corridor can be implemented. On the Eastern Corridor, the junctions are planned at Sirhind, Chawapail, Sambhu, Kalanaur, Boraki, Pilkhani, Khurja, Dadri- East, Bhanupur, Tundra, Bhimsen, Kanpur, Karchchana, Ahraura Road, Ganjkhawaja, Kugalsarai, Sone Nagar, Chiraillapatu, Andal west, Gomoh, Andal, Andal East, Khana, and Dankuni. Temporary junctions are to be put up at Karwandiya, Sasaram, and Durgawati for Phase- I Opening of the section.

Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor is spread across 1861 kilometers. A state-wise break up is given below:

•    Punjab- 88 kilometers 

•    Haryana- 72 kilometers 

•    Uttar Pradesh- 1063 kilometers 

•    Bihar- 239 kilometers 

•    Jharkhand- 196 kilometers 

•    West Bengal- 203 kilometers 

The freight traffic on the Eastern Corridor consists of coal from the coalfields of the country’s Eastern areas. It is carried to the power plants in the northern regions of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and some parts of Rajasthan. It is estimated that the total traffic in the up and down direction will increase to 224 million tonnes by 2023-24. 

DFCCIL notes on Western Corridor 

The Western Corridor is spread across 1504 kilometers. The freight traffic on the western Corridor mainly consists of ISO containers. These containers from JNPT port and Mumbai port (Maharashtra), and Mundra Kandla and Pipavay ports of Gujarat are carried to ICD’s of Northern India. Besides the ISO containers, fertilizers, salt, food grains, coal, cement, POL, and iron, and steel are also carried on this route. It is expected that the container traffic on this route will continue rising, and by 2023-24 it may reach approximately 70.5 million tonnes. Many trains plying on this route is expected to increase to 230 trains for up and down journeys. 

Western Dedicated Freight Corridor is spread across 1504 kilometers. A state-wise break up is given below:

•    Haryana- 191 kilometers 

•    Rajasthan- 561 kilometers

•    Gujarat- 552 kilometers 

•    Maharashtra- 183 kilometers 

•    Uttar Pradesh- 17 kilometers 

DFCCIL notes on Future Dedicated Freight Corridors

The Hon’ble MR had in his Budget speech in 2016 announced to take over the three new Dedicated Freight Corridors. They are: –

•    East-West Corridor (Kolkata to Mumbai) approximately 2328 kilometers 

•    North-South Corridor (Delhi to Chennai) approximately 2327 kilometers 

•    East-Coast Corridor (Kharagpur to Vijayawada) approximately 1114 kilometers 

•    Southern Corridor (Madgaon to Ankola to Rinigunta) approximately 893 kilometers 

M/s RITES did a preliminary Survey of these Dedicated Freight Corridors, and the reports were submitted for approval to Railway Board.

The Railways Board had given administrative approval to DFCCIL to prepare DPR for the East-West corridor and North-South corridor.

i)East-Coast Corridor: KHARAGPUR to VIJAYAWADA-  1115 kilometers 

ii) East-West Corridor: 

a)    Sub Corridor: BHUSAWAL to WARDHA to NAGPUR to RAJKHARSAWANKHARAGPUR to ULUBERIA to DANKUNI- 1673 kilometers 

b)    RAJKHARSAWAN to KALIPAHARI to ANDAL-195 kilometres 

(iii) North-South Corridor:

Sub Corridor VIJAYAWADA-l to NAGPUR to ITARSI-972 kilometers 

DFCCIL notes on Organizational Structure

DFCCIL follows the principles of Lean for its workforce organization.  Its managers and other staff members have functional responsibilities, not linear ones. To further incorporate principles of Lean, DFCCIL uses consultants during projects for preliminary design and management and supervision of the project.

To keep it lean, mechanization and automation will be implemented for staff cost optimization at the time of the operation phase as far as possible. Several international practices have been put in place to achieve all these, such as a regime for risk-based maintenance, intensive asset monitoring, and mechanization of infrastructure maintenance.

There are different staffing structures used for construction and operation since the skills required for each vary.

The staff associated with project delivery is mainly of engineering and similar educational background, with knowledge of design, work procuring, supervising, acquiring land, etc. This staff and the senior management work out of DFCCIL Headquarters, Delhi.

Overseen by DFCCIL officers, several work packages have been outsourced to General Consultants:

• Design
• Planning
• Tendering
• Systems integration
• Monitoring progress
• Supervision of contractors

The DFCCIL staff even takes care of several activities of critical nature:

• Budget control
• Coordination (with Ministry of Railways, stakeholder Government authorities)
• Integration of different activities
• Integration of different construction packages
• Making estimates
• MIS reporting
• Planning
• Prioritization

Suitably located in the field are 14 Chief General Manager (CGM). These take care of such activities as:

• Acquiring land
• Liaison (with government authorities)
• Monitoring construction contractors and General Consultants and their work onsite
• Yard planning
• For the Operations stage, the DFCCIL has:
• Corporate Headquarters in NOIDA
• Operation Control Centres (2)
• Training School,
• Western and Eastern Corridor HQ in Ahmadabad and Allahabad, respectively

As a part of the plan for Disaster Management, there will be a replica control provision in Corporate HQ in NOIDA for handling monitoring if there is a breakdown or other exigency.

Corridors will have field offices. There will be Ballast Depots, Integrated Maintenance Sub-Depots, Track Machines, and Integrated Maintenance Depots at appropriate locations.

In the NOIDA, Corporate HQ, there will be staff and senior managers from different disciplines, such as:

• Administration
• Engineering
• Finance
• HR
• Traffic

On DFCCIL, Integrated maintenance depots will be 160 kilometers from each other and sub depots 80 kilometers from each other. They will have Maintenance staff. Each corridor will have a single control to plan and monitor train movement.  Operating staff shall be positioned as control offices. 

HQs of Eastern and Western corridors take care of the daily maintenance, working, operations, and liaisoning (with local agencies and Zonal Railways).

Executive Directors (reporting to Top Management) will head Eastern and Western Corridors as independent revenue and cost centers.

Corporate Headquarters will take care of such matters as:

• Budget
• Business development
• Coordination with Government Departments
• Coordination with Railway Board
• Design change
• Finance
• HR
• Policy matters
• Purchase
• Security

DFCCIL notes on Important Roles in DFCCIL

The DFCCIL is controlled by the Board of Directors, to ensure its smooth functioning. They guide the DFCCIL and have the final word on its decisions. The following are the Directors and their areas of responsibility:

Sl.No.	Posts	Name
1	Chairman	Vacant
2	Managing Director	Shri. Ravindra Kumar Jain
3	Director – Finance	Shri. Hari Ballabh
4	Director – Project Planning (LA)	Shri Hari Mohan Gupta
5	Director – Operation and Business Development	Shri Nanduri Srinivas
6	Director – Infrastructure	Shri Hari Mohan Gupta
7	Part-Time Official Director	Shri R N Singh
8	Part-Time Official Director	Vacant
9	Part-Time Non-Offical Director	Shri B Ramana Kumar
10	Part-Time Non-Offical Director	Vacant
11	Part-Time Non-Offical Director	Vacant
12	Part-Time Non-Offical Director	Vacant

Officers Reporting to Various Directors

Director – Project Planning (LA)

Officers	Names
ED/EDFC	Ajay Kumar
GGM/S&T-I/EC	Satish Kumar
GGM/Civil	D K Singh
GM/Elect-III/EC	Anil Sidhartha
GGM/ROB/EC	Satya Narain Joshi
GGM/CO/EC	Mukesh KR Jain
GM/LA&SEMU	Nurul Hoda
GGM/Elect./EC	Mukesh
GM/S&T/EC-III	Ranjit Kumar
GGM/Civil/A&C	R K Gupta
GM/MA/EC	Ashish Srivastava

Director – Infrastructure

ED/WDFC	Vacant
GGM/Infra/WC	S K Negi
GGM/Proc./WC	Praveen Kumar
GGM/SEMU/WC	V K Khera
GGM/WC-I	M D S Hashmi
GM/Elect/WC-I	Vipin Kumar
GM/S&T/WC-I	V B Mathur
GM/S&T/WC-II	Nirala Katiyar
GGM/HR	Rajeev Kumar Goyal
GM/HR	A K Chhapolia
GGM/Signal/CO	Vipul Goel
GM/Elect./WC-II	Ravi Bhushan
GM/Elect./TS	A K Maurya

Director – Finance

GM/Fin/FM	Aparna Tripathi
GM/Fin/CF&P&C	Ramaah Deviie G V
GM/Fin/CAG	Sajeev Gupta
GGM/IT	Ajay Gupta
GM/Fin/Estt.&Audit	Alpna Dosaj
GM/Law	V K Sinha
Company Secretary	Meenu Kapoor
Sports Promotion Cell	–

Director- Ops & BD

GGM/BD	Niraj Verma
GM/TS&Co-ord	Sudhir Chander K R
GM/OP&CC	Ved Prakash
GM/PPP	Pawan Kumar
GM/Security	Paramshiv
GGM/Stores	P K Shafi
GGM/Mech-I	S M Sharma
GGM/Mech-II	Jayant Kumar
GGM/Signal/CO	Vipul Goel
GM/Elect./TS	A K Maurya
GGM/Admin	Renu Pushkar Chibber

That is all from us in this blog on DFCCIL Notes on its History, Objective, Structure and more.