Freight corridor update

After initial hiccups, the Dedicated Freight Corridor is back on track with funding for the country’s biggest infrastructure project tied up and more than half the land needed acquired. The eastern part of the freight corridor (1,534 km) will stretch from Ludhiana to Dankuni while the western corridor (1,839 km) will run from Mumbai (Jawaharlal Nehru Port) to Dadri. The World Bank has agreed to a loan of $2.7 billion to fund the Ludhiana-Mughalsarai section. Mughalsarai to Sonnagar (66 km) will be funded by the Centre and work on this stretch has already started. Sonnagar to Dankuni will be done on a public-private partnership mode. The Bank has sanctioned $975 million for the Khurja-Kanpur (350 km) stretch and work will start early next year. There will be another two installments for which the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC) will have to fulfill conditions like land acquisition and award of civil work contracts. In Phase-2, appraisal for Khurja-Ludhiana and Kanpur-Mughalsarai section will be completed by March next year and work is expected to start in 2013. The western corridor is funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) that has agreed to provide a loan of 679 billion yen. It has already sanctioned 405 billion yen for construction between Rewari and Makarpura (Vadodara). On the western corridor, construction of 54 major bridges is going on in full swing between Mumbai and Surat. Work on the 625-km Rewari-Palanpur stretch expected to be started soon. “The project is on track. The loans have been approved. The land is being acquired,” R K Gupta, DFCC MD said. DFCC has already acquired 50% of the 10,840 hectares required for the project, despite the involvement of 1 lakh affected people. “The entire land acquisition process is expected to be completed by June 2012,” Gupta said. The government is also restoring the autonomy of the organization that was taken away after reported corruption to speed up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s pet project. The proposal for longer tenure for engineers working on deputation in DFCC was in consideration.