It is time for Uttar Pradesh to plan. Big time investment and opportunity would be knocking on the state?s doors in a few years time and if Uttar Pradesh wants to make the most of that opportunity, this is the time to plan and act accordingly.
This was the common refrain from a cross-section of experts who were deliberating on a day-long seminar organised by the Lucknow Management Association titled ?Creating world class infrastructure?policy imperatives?, in the state capital.
With the almost simultaneous completion of the 165-km long Yamuna Expressway and the Eastern Dedicated Rail Freight Corridor in the next 4 years, experts feel that there would be an unprecedented scope for industrial growth in the state. More so as out of the 1,256-km long corridor from Ludhiana to Kolkata, 1,002 km would run through Uttar Pradesh itself, cutting across industrial clusters like Saharanpur, Meerut, Aligarh, Hapur, Khurja, Tundla, Kanpur and Allahabad.
According to V K Kaul, managing director of Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation, the freight corridor is the need of the hour and has a great potential for Uttar Pradesh. ?As the eastern and western freight corridors will meet at Dadri, it would provide an immense opportunity. With about 32 pairs of goods trains set to run in the dedicated eastern tracks daily, the corridor will act as a big boost for carrying goods, both raw and finished directly from industrial link clusters to the sea gateways of Mumbai and Gujarat, thereby reducing both time and cost,? he stated.
Reduction in costs would also be ensured as transportation would be done by double stack trains, which would carry double the tonnage of a normal train, thus translating into lower freight cost per tonne.
The other ripple effect that the corridor will have on the state, opined Kaul was the development of logistics parks, which would essentially serve as feeding points for the train on the DFC.
In fact, he stated that work on the Chandauli-Mughalsarai section of the eastern corridor is set to begin immediately and land acquisition for the same would be completed by 2009.
The corridor will be funded by multiple funding agencies, including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. In fact, talks for funding the 710-km track from Mughalsarai to Khurja with the World Bank are in the final stages, Kaul said. While the World Bank would fund Rs 10,000 crore, the remaining Rs 5,000 crore would be jointly funded by ADB and the Railways, he added.
Described as the Indian Railways? most ambitious project ever?, the dedicated freight corridors are expected to act as a catalyst for economic growth and encourage value-added services such as the creation of logistics parks and industrial hubs along their routes.
However, in order to take advantage of this opportunity, the state has been advised to make serious and definitive improvements in improving its infrastructure, particularly power and transportation.
?Though expressways are an alternative for transporting goods, there is still no other option for transporting heavy raw materials such as coal and steel. While road transportation will be handy for the cottage and small industries, bulk transportation for heavy industries still has to depend on the railways,? Kaul said.