| Delhi-Sonnagar and Delhi-Mumbai to be connected in the first phase.
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| The railways have announced the construction of a dedicated multi-modal high axle-load freight corridor with computerised control on western and eastern routes at an estimated cost of Rs 22,000 crore.
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| Announcing this, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said in the first phase of the project, Delhi-Sonnagar (Bihar) and Delhi-Mumbai would be the routes that would be connected.
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| For the eastern corridor project, a separate freight corridor is proposed from Ludhiana to Sonnagar via Ambala, Saharanpur, Khurja and Allahabad.
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| In the second phase of the proposed corridor, Mumbai-Chennai and Kolkata-Chennai will get connected.
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| The project, which was proposed last year, seeks to construct a dedicated rail freight corridor on the golden quadrilateral. The task force on the dedicated freight corridor project estimated investments at a minimum Rs 22,500 crore, spread over five years.
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| The minister, however, did not give the break-up of how the Rs 22,000 crore allocated for the project would be spread over five years.
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| The task force also proposed that a special purpose vehicle (SPV), owned jointly by the railways and users of bulk freight services, including oil companies, should be created. It also proposed that the SPV would be required to leverage equity of Rs 7,500 crore and to raise a debt of Rs 15,000 crore for financing the project.
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| The task force has recommended that the workability of the proposed project hinges on the participation of oil companies in the SPV for commercial considerations.
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| Since the project will not be considered commercially viable by private investors initially, investment will have to be made primarily by the railways and the public sector undertakings, including oil companies.
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| Experts say the viability of the dedicated freight corridor project is dependent on relative costing of alternative means of transportation for the bulk users.
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| Prasad did not give any details of the structure of the SPV or how the finances would be raised.
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| The proposed western corridor will start from Jawaharlal Nehru Port and routed via Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Palanpur, Jaipur and Rewari to Tughlakabad and Dadri. |
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