East, West freight corridors likely to be commissioned by March 2020

The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) has already placed contracts worth Rs 510 billion, while only about Rs 30 billion worth of signalling contracts are only pending now

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Last Updated : Aug 14 2018 | 3:13 PM IST

Indian Railways has expressed hope that both the Eastern and Western dedicated freight corridors will be commissioned by March 2020, though the project has seen just 50 per cent progress. On August 15, Railways will start operations in the Ateli-Phulera section of Western Dedicated Freight Corridor. The distance between two stations is 190 km and it falls in Haryana (Mahendragarh district) and Rajasthan (Jaipur district).

“Over 98.7 per cent of the land acquisition is complete. During the current financial year, we expect to construct at least another 800 km, the rest will be over in 2019-20, before the deadline of March 2020,” said a senior railways official. The two corridors — Eastern Corridor from Ludhiana to Dankuni (1856 km) and the Western Corridor from Dadri to Jawahar Lal Nehru Port (JNPT) (1504 km) — are being constructed for exclusive movement of goods trains.

The project was facing a cost over-run of 189 per cent from the earlier lined up Rs 281.81 billion in 2008 to Rs 814.59 billion, including higher land price.

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The official added that this is because of the change in land laws during the UPA-II regime, through which land prices doubled from Rs 80 billion to Rs 160 billion. The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) has already placed contracts worth Rs 510 billion, while only about Rs 30 billion worth of signalling contracts are only pending now.

Investments have touched 47 per cent of the total estimate or Rs 384.64 billion. DFCCIL is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) engaged in planning, construction, operation and maintenance of the Dedicated Freight Corridors.

For some time, the Ateli-Phulera section may not be operational throughtout the day, as railways want to utilise this for construction of the remaining areas in the Western Corridor. Railways expects atleast 70 million tonne of traffic during the initial days.

The current section includes six DFC stations in this section and two junctions (Ateli and Phulera).