Ashwini Vaishnaw, Hon’ble Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics & Information Technology presented awards to DFCCIL teams and individual employees for outstanding performance while addressing DFCCIL’s 17th Foundation Day at Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi today.

Vaishnaw who was the Chief Guest at the 17th DFCCIL Foundation Day function commended the DFCCIL team for their hard work and dedication. Other dignitaries present were VK Tripathi Chairman & CEO of Railway Board & Chairman DFCCIL, RN Singh Secretary of Railway Board, RK Jain, MD DFCCIL, N Srinivas Director/OP & BD, Sh HM Gupta, Director/Infra. Hira Ballabh Director/Finance, Pankaj Saxena Director/PP, Ashish Kumar CVO. 

Vaishnaw handed over the individual, team, and running shields today. 34 individual awards and one posthumous award were awarded. The Group award was awarded to the in-house team consisting of four members who contributed to the development of the Dedicated Freight Information System (DFIS) system.

The running shield for the Western Corridor was awarded to the Ahmedabad Field unit and for the Eastern Corridor, it was jointly awarded to the Prayagraj East & West Field Units. The Hon’ble Minister unveiled the DFC in-house journal The Game Changer & the special edition of Manthan, the Rajbhasha House journal. 

Vaishnaw declared DFCCIL as the “jewel of Indian Railways.”

He said that DFC has not only created new ways of working, and new ways of project execution but also set new benchmarks about how IR is to evolve in the future.

The Hon’ble MR spoke about 28 major reforms initiated by Railways. Sh Vaishnaw spoke about IR aiming for a 40 percent modal share and 3000 MT loading. He said that projects worth Rs 90,000 crores have been identified by Indian railways to facilitate the movement of people and cargo. Construction of freight corridors in mineral-rich Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha can add significantly to the growth in IR’s cargo-carrying capacity.

Vaishnaw said that DFCs should focus on the shift from the construction phase to the operation & maintenance (O&M) phase. 

Vaishnaw stressed on a significant change in the mindset with a hunger for growth, cargo, and ensuring customer satisfaction. He said that the IR is a repository of tremendous talent which can be leveraged for the good of the nation. 

Speaking on the occasion, VK Tripathi Chairman & CEO of Railway Board & Chairman DFCCIL said India is among a select group of nations having dedicated freight corridors.

He said that the nation has a lot of expectations from DFCCIL especially by decongesting saturated IR routes and providing ease of mobility. In the operations phase DFC should strive for time-bound delivery and innovative freight products.

RK Jain, MD, DFCCIL, while addressing the august gathering said that the DFCs have entered from Sanrachna (Infrastructure)` to Sanchalan (Operations) phase. The dedicated freight corridors are freight expressways capable of transforming not only the transportation but the logistics landscape by providing longer, faster, heavier, and longer trains. 

Rajeev Mehta Chairman of Logistics Committee, Cement Manufacturers Association & CLO Ultra Tech Cement & Jakob Friis Sorensen, MD APM Terminals Pipavav spoke on the occasion and provided insight into the importance of DFC from a customer standpoint.