Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched a sharp attack on the previous UPA government over the delay in implementing the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), alleging that the ambitious railway project remained entangled in bureaucratic procedures for years before his government accelerated its execution after 2014.
Modi targets UPA over delays
Addressing the ‘NaMo for Viksit Bharat’ event in Vadodara, Modi described the completion of the 2,800-km Dedicated Freight Corridor as a major milestone in India’s infrastructure and connectivity drive. He said the project had been conceived in 2004 and a special company was established in 2006 to execute it, but progress remained slow until his government took over.
“Until 2014, files just kept shuffling from one place to another,” Modi said, adding that the files themselves were not “fortunate enough” to get a dedicated corridor and were instead left “stuck” and “wandering aimlessly”.
Modi said work on the 2,800-km corridor had now been completed and claimed the Eastern and Western Freight Corridors were emerging as the “main backbone” of the country’s trade and business.
DFC boosts freight movement
Highlighting the impact of dedicated freight infrastructure, the Prime Minister said passenger and goods trains earlier had to share the same tracks, affecting the speed of both freight and passenger services. The DFC, he said, had changed this arrangement and was helping accelerate India’s economic transformation.
He also cited a recent double-stack container train journey from JNPT in Mumbai to Vadodara, saying a single trip carried cargo equivalent to more than 250 trucks.
Taking a swipe at critics, Modi jokingly referred to a “naraaz fufa” who might question the impact on truck operators.
Modi compares railway infrastructure
Comparing railway infrastructure under successive governments, Modi said the previous governments would announce one or two trains in the annual Budget and publicise them extensively. In contrast, he said, new trains are now being introduced throughout the year.
Modi further claimed that India had manufactured around 50,000 modern railway coaches since 2014, while the previous government “couldn’t even build 50,000 toilets in 10 years”.
