The 3,300-km dedicated freight corridor, costing R95,000 crore, is among the country?s most ambitious infrastructure projects. A large portion of the project is being funded by multilateral agencies (JICA for the eastern corridor and World Bank for the western), while the Railways will contribute R26,000 as its equity. The corridors are being set up under the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd, a special purpose vehicle of Indian Railways. DFCCIL managing director RK Gupta briefed FE?s Rajat Arora about the progress of the projects under its fold.
What is the current status of the 3,300-km dedicated freight corridor project?
This year, as per the budget, we have to award civil construction contract for up to 1,500 km. We have already awarded contracts for 1,000 km. The cost of the contracts is around R10,000 crore. I am sure we’ll cross the budget estimates, as we are eyeing 2,000 km (worth R20,000 crore) in the current fiscal. The work on the 1,461-km western corridor from Dadri to JN Port, being funded by the Japan International Cooperation agency (JICA), is moving at a very swift pace. We have already awarded a 640-km route from Rewari to Palanpur, and another set of contracts from Palanpur to Vaitarna (600 km) will be awarded in a few months. By the end of this year, we would have awarded around 1,200 km on the western corridor alone. We?ll also be awarding system contracts (signaling and communications) for 1,300 km. The cost of the contracts is expected to be around R3,900 crore.
But the work on the eastern corridor is not moving at the desired pace as the 534-km Sonnagar-Dankuni route, which was to come up as a PPP, hasn?t found any takers.
Things are looking good on the eastern corridor as well. We?ll soon call bids for the 400-km-long Kanpur-Mughal Sarai section; 24 companies are vying for the contract, which we plan to award in a couple to of months. Earlier this year, a consortium of Tata Projects and Spanish firm Aldesa was awarded a R3,300-crore civil works contract to build a rail track between Kanpur and Khurja in Uttar Pradesh, a 343-km segment.
For the Sonnagar-Dankuni section, we are getting the financial report made and also getting the new traffic forecast for the route. We are hopeful of finding investors. The 1,839-km eastern corridor from Punjab to West Bengal is being part-funded by the World Bank. The balance funds are to be arranged through the public-private partnership (PPP) route and from the national transporter?s own equity.
Are you expecting cost overruns for the project?
We are facing a peculiar problem. The cost has gone up on some portions of the western and eastern corridors as we are not able to find the desirable soil, which constitutes 30% of the civil contract cost. We can?t use any soil as there are prescribed standards for its crushing strength and swelling. In Rajasthan, we get the desirable soil in the lead of 10 km, whereas in Kanpur, we’ll be transporting it from 200 km afar. In Mumbai, the lead will further go up to 250 km. Then, if we don?t find desirable soil, then blenders have to be set up near the construction site. So, it would lead to some escalation in the cost.