New Delhi: The 351-km freight line connecting the state is not just a line, it is going to be the gateway to the development of Uttar Pradesh. The state which had a rich history of river economy had been lagging behind in the race due to the development of the coastal economy.
Not only entrepreneurs and investment, but labor was also migrating from here to the coastal states. The ill-fated land-locked state has however seen a U-turn in its fortunes after Yogi Adityanath became the Chief Minister. If major work has been done anywhere on developing supply chain infrastructure in the last 3 years, it is in Uttar Pradesh.
Expressway, logistic park, airport and cargo terminus are being constructed in the state on a war footing and in these monumental steps, the icing on the cake is the dedicated freight corridor.
A strong move towards a trillion dollar economy
This is not just a 351-km connectivity route, it will be the main economic arterial route of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s goal of making UP a trillion dollar economy and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of making India a five trillion economy.
Its focal point and junction will also be Dadri, the heartland of the country, which is in Uttar Pradesh.
It will become the center of the total 3300 km freight corridor. It will extend from Ludhiana to Mumbai, Kolkata to Dhankuni, West Bengal. World class airport in Jewar will prove to be the crowning glory.
By eliminating the missing link of supply chain in Uttar Pradesh, this strip will connect the state not only with India but also with the world. This corridor will break the lock of the entire state and will open the door of the state’s market to the world. With just this effort, the current state of development will run in the entire state, the resources will become alive, the latent resources will become active and many more options of business will open which at present only seem unimaginable.
With this, not only will the traders of Uttar Pradesh go out and sell the goods, the traders of the whole world will come to Uttar Pradesh when the road is smooth and it will unlock not only the market of 24 crore people of Uttar Pradesh but also the market of about 800 crore people.
The whole world will be aware of the brand UP through ODOP
With this, development will get a new dimension, hidden talents and skills will come out in the open. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s ambitious scheme One District One Product (ODOP) will also get a new impetus, saving time and resources, quicker access to ports leading to loss of perishable products.
Then these ports of the country will also become a strength and part of Uttar Pradesh, UP will become part of the industrial and logistic hub again.
Players of the supply chain markets around the world will use this freight corridor to buy and sell goods from India, including UP. With this addition, not only will exports of steel, petroleum products, iron ore, cement, fertilizers, food grains, artisans along with farmers will also get a world market and a new vision. People will turn to new opportunities and entrepreneurship will get wings.
There are many other benefits from this dedicated freight corridor. For example, both goods and passenger trains used to run on the same rail track but now both the trains and goods trains will get different tracks, both the speed and number will increase.
This will increase the total business deals of the country by leaps and bounds. In the coming times, the size of GDP can increase at least by four times. Where the average speed of the goods train is 25 km per hour on the current rail track, having dedicated track will increase the speed by two to three times, meaning the economic circulation in the country will be faster and the speed and volume of deals in the country will only increase with the speed of the track due to doubling, increase in speed and rounding, freight will be quick and cheap, there will be no risk of spoilage of goods, reasonable prices will start to be received for products which are perishable.
Agriculture will get double benefits. With the opening of this freight corridor and the freight being cheaper, the availability of goods will also be equal everywhere, which will also make price control easier and will control inflation.
The length of the rail will be longer rather than shorter, due to which the coaches and trains will be made bigger than before, there will be long tracks, which will reduce the number of welding joints on the track, speed faster and easier. In the last 18 years in the country, freight has increased by 750 million tonnes, but there was no increase in carrying capacity.
So far, the high traffic Golden Quadrilateral corridor connecting Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai is only 16 per cent of the total train length but it carries 52 per cent passengers and 58 per cent freight load, putting extreme pressure on it. The need and importance of such freight corridors can be understood from this. In India, people still use more expensive means of transport for road transport, 57 percent of freight by road and 36 percent by rail, compared to 48 percent of its total freight by US rail and China takes 47 percent.
Rail freight is still expensive in India with a low percentage of participation, due to which this freight corridor scheme with its unique position, advantages of its speed, design, technology and high carrying capacity, also reduces freight charges by 50 percent.
