Railways getting ready for a freight corridor from Kharagpur to Vijaywada

The Indian Railways is likely to move a proposal to set up the country's third dedicated freight corridor from Kharagpur in West Bengal to Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh, through funding from multi-lateral agencies like Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and World Bank. 

The 1,114-kilometre corridor is estimated to cost around Rs 567.49 billion. "We have moved a proposal in this regard and are looking to tap funding from JICA or World Bank for the project," said Anurag Sachan, managing director of the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL). 

The Railways is likely to incorporate the project in its wish list to the finance ministry for the upcoming Budget. 

On August 15, DFCCIL had commissioned a 190-kilometre stretch between Ateli and Phulera. The Rs 814-billion project of Eastern and Western DFCs will cover a total of 3,360 kilometres. 

While Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is providing debt of Rs 387.22 billion for the western India project, Eastern DFC (Mughalsarai-Allahabad-Kanpur-Khurja-Dadri- & Khurja-Ludhiana) is being funded by the World Bank through a loan of $2.360 billion. Interestingly, the JICA loan is coming at a term of interest in perpetuity of 7 per cent per annum, or around Rs 27 billion, indefinitely. 

From the two lines, DFCCIL is expecting a track access charge of around Rs 110 billion by 2021. Sachan added the organisation is expecting a traffic of around 400 million tonne by 2021, 800 MT by 2031 and 1,795 MT by 2051 from Eastern and Western Corridors, that will be commissioned by March 2020. 

It was in 2016-17, that the government decided to take up three new corridors -- East-West Corridor (2328 kms) (Kolkata-Mumbai), North-South Corridor(2343 km) (Delhi-Chennai) and (iii) East Coast Corridor (1114 km) ( Kharagpur-Vijaywada). 

These lines will be parallel to the existing alignment and will be designed for 25 tonne axle load standards (upgradable to 32.5 tonne axle load) with maximum speed of 100 kilo meter per hour. According to a government statement, the freight traffic projections in the three new corridors was approximately 1300 million tonnes by 2026-27 -- including Rs 1.1 trillion investment for East West Corridor and Rs 1.04 trillion for North South corridor.

Freight traffic up by 22 MT from April-July

The Indian railways has posted over 22 MT increase in freight traffic for April to July 2018. 

"Overall freight traffic for the period under review was seen at 397.54 MT from April to July, compared to 375.53 MT during the same time in 2017-18," said a senior railways official. Interestingly, the revenue of national transporter was seen at Rs 597.16 billion, up 6.97 per cent from Rs 558.25 billion during April-July 2017. 

Out of this, passenger revenue was seen at Rs 171.65 billion and freight revenue at Rs 396.87 billion, up 2.69 per cent and 6.97 per cent respectively over last year.