Vadodara: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday inaugurated the remaining three sections of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) among a slew of development projects in Vadodara. With this, India’s freight rail network linking eastern, northern and western regions will become fully operational.
Slamming the previous governments over the delay in implementing the Dedicated Freight Corridor, PM Modi said the project remained stuck in files for years after the idea was first proposed in 2004.
He said the idea was conceived in 2004 and a special company was set up in 2006 to undertake the work.“Those of you who are young here today, when this idea was first conceived, many of you were probably not even born yet. Until 2014, the file was just there. It went from here to there; the files were travelling on the table,” PM Modi said.
“The truth is that for seven or eight years, not even one kilometre of the freight corridor was completed. If they had run the country like that, I don’t know if three or four generations would have passed and it still wouldn’t have happened,” he added.
Emphasising the benefits of the Dedicated Freight Corridor, PM Modi said the infrastructure has significantly reduced freight travel time, lowered transportation costs and helped cut fuel consumption, adding that more than 400 freight trains are now operating daily on the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors, with the number reaching around 430 trains a day.
The 326 route-km sections, New Sanand North-New Makarpura, New Umbergaon-New Saphale and New Saphale-New JNPT, are built at a cost of more than Rs 20,700 crore.
PM Modi will also lay the foundation stone for three railway projects: Vadodara–Ratlam third and fourth railway lines, Miyagam Karjan–Choranda–Malsar gauge conversion and Vishwamitri–Dabhoi railway doubling.
Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai
Later in the day, PM Modi will inaugurate the seventh edition of the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2026 in Mumbai, according to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
