Indian state railway IR has completed the construction of the 1,337 km Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) from Ludhiana in the state of Punjab to Sonnagar in Bihar. In addition, on 13th October 2023, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corp of India (DFCCIL) announced that commercial services on the final section of the line would begin on 1st November 2023. The first electrically powered freight train on the 401 km section from New Sahnewal in Ludhiana to New Khurja via New Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh already ran on 11th October 2023. The design speed of the EDFC is 100 km/h, and IR expects trains of up to 1,000 m in length to be able to run on the 1,337 km line within 24 hours at an average speed of 50-60 km/h. The entire line will particularly benefit thermal power plants in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, and parts of Rajasthan, as it will mainly serve coal transport. Despite a cost and time overrun in the construction of the line, it is expected that the completed line will have a capacity for 250 trains per day and will transport about 250 million t of freight per year by 2037.
