One of the country’s largest infrastructure projects, the railways Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFCC), has been promised a whopping $2.5 billion by the World Bank for it. This money will be used to build the eastern corridor of this ambitious project which also has on the anvil the construction of a western freight corridor.
The eastern corridor from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni in West Bengal will traverse six states and is expected to help the movement of freight like coal from the eastern coal fields to power plants in northern Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and parts of Rajasthan, foodgrains, finished steel, cement, fertilisers, etc. The western corridor stretches from Rewari in Haryana to Dadri in Haryana to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT)
According to V.K. Kaul, managing director of the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation, the World Bank has already committed to provide $2.5 billion for Phase I of the project which will involve the construction of the Khurja-Kanpur double line section and the Kanpur to Mughalsarai stretch.
While the World Bank has committed this amount, it is likely to be sanctioned when its board meets in December this year, said Mr Kaul. In addition, the World Bank has also agreed to fund the Ludhiana-Khurja section.
For the Khurja-Kanpur section, DFCC has already invited international pre-qualification bids and it is hopeful of issuing the RFP (Request for Proposal) by May-June of 2011, said Mr Kaul. He further said that physical work on this section will commence the same year.