Indian Railways to invite bids for Dedicated Western Freight Corridor

The plan is to construct dedicated freight corridors across the country to free up passenger lines and increase speeds. Photo: V Malik.

The Indian Ministry of Railways has decided to invite tenders for the WesternDedicated Freight Corridor development worth Rs 10,000 crore ($2.2 billion) in the current financial year.
The Western Corridor is part of the initiative set up by the Railway Ministry, which will cover 2,762 km long two routes – the Eastern Corridor from Ludhiana to Dankuni and the Western Corridor.
The project will be developed on the ‘Golden Quadrilateral’ linking Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Howrah and its two diagonals Delhi-Chennai and Mumbai-Howrah; which carries more than 55% of revenue earning freight traffic.
An official from the DFCCIL said:
“Overall, Rs 10,000 crore bids will be invited by us this year for awarding civil engineering contracts for package I & II of the first phase of the western corridor.
“This will be followed by bids for awarding electrification and signalling works in six months.”
The Western dedicated freight corridor is being developed from Dadri, near New Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) passing through three states, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat will be developed in two phases.
Phase I will be the 950 km Rewari-Vadodara section. Civil engineering works for this phase is being awarded in three packages of Rewari-Ajmer, Ajmer-Palanpur and Palanpur-Vadodara.
Phase II consists of the 565 km Vadodara-JNPT stretch.
The overall cost of the Dedicated Freight Corridors will cost the exchequer more than Rs 77,000 crore ($17 billion to $18 billion).
After completion, the dedicated freight corridors will enable Indian Railways to move fright cargo at an average speed of 65 kmph instead of the 22 kmph it currently moves at.
It is also expected to drive the establishment of industrial corridors and logistic parks along its alignment with the development of Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).
The Japanese Bank of Industrial Cooperation (JICA) has loaned close to Rs 4,500-crore for the first phase of the Western Corridor which is likely to be commissioned in March 2016.