Nhava Sheva dedicated freight corridors to benefit shippers

The country’s busy container handler has begun to marshal the infrastructure necessary to integrate its operations with the much-awaited national Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), expected to connect Nhava Sheva terminals at the end of the year. Stakeholders often face difficulty moving containers in and out of the northern India hinterlands. The DFC is a 1,504 km broad-gauge freight-only network between Dadri ICD, a key inland point in Uttar Pradesh, and Nhava Sheva. To facilitate project completion, JNPA has opened a new and sophisticated common railyard for all terminals in the harbour, touting itself as the first fully DFC-compliant port. Compatible rail tracks are reportedly being laid from New Delhi to JNPA and a loading yard will be located on JNPA premises. The long-haul common yard consists of three lines of 1,500 metres for double-stack container trains, two of which are top-wired ballast-less lines meant for loading and unloading of containers, and one for engine turnaround of electric locomotives, as per reports.