Largest Elevated Rotary Junction

Indian Railways is building two world-class freight corridors, Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC), to move goods between industrial heartlands in the North and ports on the Eastern and Western coasts. The WDFC was in the news recently for the Largest Elevated RCC Solid Slab Rotary Junction made by Rachana Infracon in association with Rachana Construction Co. at Valsad Road Over-bridge (ROB) in Gujarat. The unique rotary junction made its way to the India Book of Records (IBR) and Asia Book of Records (ABR) simultaneously.

The solid slab consisting of a height of 1.5 m is elevated at 9.21 m from Western Dedicated Freight Corridor Track, covering a 1547.21 sq. m area, RCC M 45 Grade Concrete of 1974 Cu.M and Steel TMT reinforcement bar of 721.47 MT, consumed 51 days since February 15, 2023. A team of 174 technical workers was engaged under the surveillance of Navinbhai Patel from Rachana Infracon and Rachana Construction Co., and Sitesh Kumar, Project Director, IRCON International Ltd.

The dedicated freight-only railway lines are being built along the four key transportation routes, known as the Golden Quadrilateral connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Howrah, and its two diagonals, Delhi-Chennai and Mumbai-Howrah. Covering a total of 10,122 km distance, these corridors carry the heaviest traffic. The route carries 52 percent of passenger traffic and 58 percent of freight traffic. Both routes are highly saturated, with line capacity utilisation reaching as high as 150 percent.

Considering increased transport demands, overtly congested routes, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with road transport, the government proposed this initiative. The freight corridors will help reduce the cost and allow faster transportation. Along with that, Indian Railways will open new avenues for investment, as this will lead to the construction of industrial corridors and logistic parks along these routes.

The record for the Largest Elevated RCC Solid Slab Rotary Junction was set by Rachana Infracon in association with Rachana Construction Company at Valsad ROB, Gujarat. A team of 174 persons was engaged in the project.

Meanwhile, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) completed the reconstruction work of the Valsad road over-bridge (ROB) on the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor in a record time of 20 days. The work on the Western DFC’s Vaitarana-Sachin section witnessed a bottleneck of crossing the road over-bridge near Valsad town in Gujarat, according to the Railway Ministry.

The Western corridor connecting Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) in Mumbai will pass through Gujarat, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra of Eastern DFC and Western DFC. The 306 km long Rewari-Madar section of the Western DFC was dedicated to the country on January 7, 2021. The trial run of the 369 km freight corridor between New Palanpur to New Kishangarh was also conducted by railway authorities. The operation control center (OCC) for the DFC project is situated at Prayagraj. The speeds attained by freight trains on the DFC tracks are comparable to any of the fastest mail express trains on the network.

Ircon International Limited (IRCON), involved in the above project, is a government company incorporated by the Central Government (Ministry of Railways). It is the leading turnkey construction company in the public sector known for its quality, commitment, and consistency in terms of performance. IRCON has widespread operations in several states in India and in other countries including Malaysia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, the UK, Algeria, and Sri Lanka.