‘Heart of the network’: Inside WDFC’s control room in Ahmedabad driving Railways’ 3000 million tonnes freight goal

Spread over 3.07 acres of area, the Ahmedabad OCC is one the two key centres of 2843-km Dedicated freight corridor of Indian Railways, which has mapped every of asset of its network

Sapre then alerted the station master of New Makarpura and provided details of train number, wagon number and axle box number for physical verification of the heating alarm by stopping the train at the station. It was an error in the brake binding, and the train was allowed to pass after the problem was fixed. With this process, Sapre averted a potential train derailment as he and other continued to monitor every such abberation on the expansive display board that spanned the wall, with blinking colours showing the status of movement of every freight train along the route in real time.

“The alarm was sent by the hot axle box detector (HABD) installed next to the Railway track. It uses infrared sensors to detect overheating. The temperature difference of either side of the axle should not exceed 25 degree centigrade and absolute temperature cannot be over 82 degree centigrade. The centre is the heart of the 1506-km network of WDFC. We keep an eye on literally every movement of over 150 pairs of trains on the route,” said Sapre.

Spread over 3.07 acres of area, the Ahmedabad OCC is one the two key centres of 2843-km Dedicated freight corridor of Indian Railways, which has mapped every of asset of its network- from track, traction power, signal & telecommunications, rolling stocks, stations- in a control room to provide seamless flow of goods along its ambitious rail freight arteries. It is now working towards the Predictive Maintenance system enabled by Artificial Intelligence (AI).

With this system in place, the Indian Railways is looking to achieve its ambitious target to increase the freight traffic to 3000 million tonnes (MT) by 2030 from over 1600 MT freight loaded in 2024-25 (FY25) and raise the speed of freight trains to 100 kmph from current average speed of 25 kmph.

With this system in place, the Indian Railways is looking to achieve its ambitious target to increase the freight traffic to 3000 million tonnes (MT) by 2030

First announced in the Railway budget of 2005-06, the development of DFCC network ran into many delays owing to many challenges like lengthy process of approval, high quantum of earthwork, and Land acquisitions etc.

While 1337-km Eastern Dedicated Freight corridor (EDFC), which runs from Ludhiana (Punjab) to Sonnagar (Bihar) is fully commissioned, the 102-km stretch from Vaitarna to Mumbai (JNPT) of WDFC is pending and scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. In all, the DFCs traverse through nine states and 72 districts, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL), a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of Ministry of Railways, has been tasked with the construction, operation and maintenance of the complete network.

Spanning 1,506 km from Dadri (Uttar Pradesh) to Mumbai (Maharashtra), the WDFC passes through Haryana, Rajasthan, and Gujarat, directly linking India’s industrial clusters with major western ports. Currently 93.2 percent complete, WDFC is operational on several stretches, carrying double-stack container services, cement and clinker trains, coal rakes for power plants, Trucks on Train services and parcel traffic. With volumes steadily rising, WDFC is handling on an average 180 freight trains per day on commissioned sections, demonstrating its potential to decongest passenger routes, reduce road freight and promote modal shift.

Manish Awasthy, the Chief General Manager of DFCCIL, said that once fully commissioned, the WDFC will reduce the logistics costs, cutting freight transit times, and boosting India’s export-import competitiveness.

Spanning 1,506 km from Dadri (Uttar Pradesh) to Mumbai (Maharashtra), the WDFC passes through Haryana, Rajasthan, and Gujarat, directly linking India’s industrial clusters with major western ports.

“For Indian Railways to transport more freight through its network, we needed such a command centre to monitor every aspect of its operation to expedite the movement. At the OCC, we can see where the congestion is, speed of the trains, health of the rolling stock, monitoring of complete electric lines etc. We can decide which train to expedite to ensure speedy arrival of goods. With this system we have been able to increase our average speed to 50-55 kmph and transit time has reduced by almost 50 percent,” said Awasthy.

Currently, both DFC together carry almost 13 percent of Indian Railways total gross tonne-kilometer (GTKM) freight. Awasthy further said that OCC is connected to all the stations of WDFC as well as Divisional head quarters of Indian Railways on dual redundant OFC (Optical Fiber Cable) system.

“It has centralised control and functioning of 2*25 KV traction power through SCADA (Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition) and general electric systems through non-traction SCADA. It also has a system to establish communication with train loco-pilots and station masters, the Global System for Mobile Radio Communication for Railways (GSM-R),” said the official.

Jitendra Kumar Agrawal, Additional General Manager of DFCCIL at the command centre, who looks after operations and business development, said that systems like HABD and Axle counter installed across the WDFC ensures safety as increasing speed of train might result in derailment if not monitored properly.

“We have installed a total of 80 HABD across the WDFC lines. Similarly we have an axle counter between two signals which counts every axle of the train. If there is any error in counting the axles of the wagon, it immediately sends a message to the control room and the next signal is immediately made red so that the train does not move forward and the error can be investigated,” said Agrawal.

Back at the room with a big wall, Rahul Sapre goes back to the dashboard for the month of August. He received a total of 495 alarms, of which feedback was taken in 490 cases. A total of 129 cases involved brake binding, 320 of HTNAD and 8 cases were of hot axle, which becomes one of the potential reasons of train derailment.

“In an eight hour shift per day, we get 10-12 alarms per day. We cannot take any one of the alarms lightly. You never know what it could lead to,” said the engineer.