IR plans to shift all goods trains of Indian Railways running on the Howrah -Delhi line to the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC).
With this objective, Naresh Pal Singh, General Manager, North Central Railway (NCR), on Wednesday, inspected Dedicated Freight Corridor’s (DFCCIL) Operations Control Centre (OCC) at Prayagraj for the first time since taking over as GM NCR.
The inspection was conducted in view of new connectivity works between NCR and DFCCIL at five locations – Chunar–New Dagmagpur, Bhimsen–New Bhimsen, Ekdil–New Ekdil, Makkhanpur–New Makkhanpur and Tundla–New Tundla.
During his address to the officers of DFCCIL and NCR at the OCC, he asked DFCCIL officials to use artificial intelligence for crew booking.
[Crew booking is a system wherein Railways creates a roster deploying its loco pilots and train managers to work trains. This is done taking into account the number of weekly working hours railway men have to put in, their weekly rest schedule, vis a vis manpower availability under normal situations and emergencies.]
He instructed all departments to work in tandem to minimize asset failures.He advised officers to coordinate with adjoining zones—East Central Railway, North Central Railway, and Northern Railway—to remove operational bottlenecks.
At present, EDFC is operating at its maximum capacity.During the Magh Mela period in January 2026, an average of 455 trains were operated daily, he observed.
With the anticipated increase in trains coming into EDFC from Northern Railway, NCR, and ECR, he advised increasing the number of longer loops.
He also suggested reconsidering the doubling of single-line connections to avoid interchange detention.
He directed finalization of the scope of works, including commissioning of the air-conditioned running room at New Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction within this month and completion of the air-conditioned running room at New Khurja by the end of June. He also discussed capacity expansion of air-conditioned running room at New Kanpur Junction.
These facilities will enable loco pilots and train managers to take proper rest and avail better amenities while on duty.He concluded by assuring full support to EDFC to achieve new milestones.
