Unit chief general manager Pankaj Gupta said a successful trial of an electric loco goods train was conducted on the track after receiving authorisation from higher authorities.
Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited’s (DFCCIL) Ambala unit conducted its first trial on the Shambhu-Sahnewal section of freight corridor in Punjab.
The 82-km long track starting near Haryana-Punjab border in Patiala ends at Sahnewal in Ludhiana and is part of the total 175.1-km section from Sahnewal in Punjab to Pilkhani in Uttar Pradesh of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor.
Unit chief general manager (CGM) Pankaj Gupta said a successful trial of an electric loco goods train was conducted on the track after receiving authorisation from higher authorities.
“It was conducted for two hours from 1.45 pm to 3.45 pm at an average speed of 50-60 km that touched a maximum speed of 70 kmph,” he added.
With this, officials believe, full fledged freight traffic will likely open on the section by July-end or early in August.
“After completion of construction, we have now conducted a trial run and will be handed over to the railways. In the first week of July, four senior officials of the Northern Railway will conduct a safety inspection before final commissioning,” Gupta said
There are a total of 14 new stations allowing crossings, out of which six – New Shambhu, New Sarai Banjara, New Mandi Gobindgarh, New Sirhind, New Khanna and New Chawapail – are on the section where the run was conducted.
Separating freight traffic from passenger trains, the eastern corridor will cover Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib, Patiala, Ambala, Yamunanagar and Saharanpur districts in three states.
The unit is constructing the corridor in three phases, Shambhu-Sahnewal in Punjab (82 km), the Kalanaur-Pilkhani part in Uttar Pradesh (16.8 km) and Shambhu-Kalanaur in Haryana (76.7 km).
Work on the section in Uttar Pradesh is almost complete and trail run might be conducted by the end of this month and on the Haryana section by August 15.
In Haryana, the project suffered a severe delay primarily because the corridor was passing through the military area in Ambala Cantonment and a CSD canteen was demolished to allow passage of tracks. The creation of rail infrastructure on such a large scale, the authorities believe, will give a boost to the industries and thus drive the establishment of logistic parks along its alignment.
