New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 'New Bhaupur- New Khurja' section of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) on December 29. During the event, he will also inaugurate EDFC's Operation Control Centre (OCC) at Prayagraj. The inauguration ceremony will take place through video conferencing.
The 351-km New Bhaupur-New Khurja section of EDFC is situated in Uttar Pradesh and is built at a cost of Rs 5,750 crore. The section will open new vistas of opportunity for the local industries such as aluminium industry (Pukhrayan region of Kanpur Dehat district), dairy sector (Auraiya district), textile production or 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 mainline and will enable Indian Railways to run faster trains.
While 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), presently under construction, starts from Sahnewal near Ludhiana (Punjab) and is slated to pass through the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand to terminate at Dankuni in West Bengal. It is being constructed by 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 (1504 route km) that connects Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai. It will traverse through the states of UP, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
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