New Delhi: The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation is gearing up to set up more than 100 railway stations and terminals -- all of them "specially designed" -- along the 3,360-km-long, much-delayed network linking the eastern and western seaboards to the northern heartland.
Besides, the dedicated freight corridor, known as DFC, will have as many as 12 private freight terminals, 15 private sidings and 10 goods sheds to cater to over 300 million tonnes of traffic a year from 2020-21.
Designs of these new DFC buildings will be influenced by local culture and architecture so that they become iconic structures of the area's skyline, a senior official of the Corporation said. "Special care has been taken that all the station buildings reflect the heritage of the region," the official said, not wishing to be identified.
Passing through nine states and 60 districts, the Rs 81,459 crore project will have 48 stations and junctions along the Western DFC and 58 in the Eastern DFC.
While the Western DFC will cover 1,504 km from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust near Navi Mumbai to Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, traversing through Vadodara-Ahmedabad-Palanpur-Phulera-Rewari, the Eastern DFC covers 1,856 km from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni, near Kolkata in West Bengal, and will traverse the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.
"Many private players have shown interest to build multi-modal logistics parks and terminals along the corridor to facilitate value addition -- including packaging, labelling, retailing and transportation of goods on the dedicated route," the official said.
All the newly-designed station buildings are expected to be ready before the corridor becomes operational in 2020-21.
There is a focus on station buildings as economic activities get a boost around the rail stations and terminals.