Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to inaugurate the New Bhaupur-New Khurja section of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) today (December 29).
The prime minister will attend the event and inaugurate the section of the corridor at 11 am via video conferencing.
PM Modi will also be inaugurating the EDFC's Operation Control Centre (OCC) at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, as per the information released by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
The New Bhaupur-New Khurja section of the EDFC, which is located in UP, is built at Rs 5,750 crores. It is going to open up various avenues of opportunity for the local industries.
The new EDFC section will help in decongesting the Kanpur-Delhi main-line. It will furthermore enable the Indian Railways to run faster trains.
The diverse range of industries to benefit from the new 351 km-long section include those in the dairy sector in the Auraiya district and the aluminium manufacturers in the Pukhrayan district.
The New Bhaupur-New Khurja section will also turn out to benefit the asafoetida or 'hing' production in Hathras, the pottery products of Khurja in the Bulandshahr district, the glassware industry of Firozabad, Aligarh's locks and hardware industry, and textile producers and block printers of the Etawah district.
"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 PMO said in its release.
"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" it added.
As for the EDFC, it is proposed to cover a distance of 1,856 km. It begins at Sahnewal near the city of Ludhiana in Punjab and ends at Dankuni in West Bengal. It is slated to pass through various other states.
The states that will be covered by the route include Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.
The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) is the one responsible for constructing it. It has been set up as a special purpose vehicle to operate these dedicated freight corridors.
The 1,504 km-long the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor is also being constructed by the DFCCIL. It is going to connect Dadri in Uttar Pradesh with the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai while passing through Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
The governor of Uttar Pradesh, Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and Union Minister Piyush Goyal are going to be present on the occasion as well.
