L&T wins Rs 28.6 billion worth package for Eastern Freight corridor

Construction work on the eastern railway freight corridor has picked up the pace with construction order for the single-track corridor from Khurja to Pilkhani was awarded to engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T).

L&T on Friday said it has won a single-track corridor package on the eastern dedicated freight corridor worth Rs 28.64 billion for construction of the 222km line.

"This is Larsen & Toubro's first EPC Civil, Structure & Track project in the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor. In the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, L&T already has a share of 71 per cent in the civil packages and 100 per cent share in the electrical packages," the company said in its statement to BSE.

"The scope of work includes construction of single railway track including yards, 75 major & 588 minor bridges, 1 rail over bridge modification, 4 rail flyovers, 21 stations along with construction of all associated works. The project is planned to be executed using completely mechanized means of track linking using the latest technology in railway construction," the company said in its statement.

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) is a special purpose vehicle of the Indian Railways, mandated to build dedicated freight corridors. The project won by L&T will be funded by World Bank (WB) and is a part of the 1856 km Eastern Corridor.

The Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor consists of two distinct segments: an electrified double-track segment of 1409 km between Dankuni in West Bengal & Khurja in Uttar Pradesh & an electrified single-track segment of 447 km between Ludhiana (Dhandarikalan) - Khurja - Dadri in the state of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. DFCCIL has completed awarding of all civil, electrical and signalling and a telecom contract have been awarded for the western corridor and is in the process of completing awards for the eastern side. According to DFCCIL, Rs 519.06 billion worth of contracts have been awarded so far. The dedicated freight corridor is to be developed in phases, of which the first phase is to be completed in November this year and the last phase is to be ready by end of 2020.