Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal feels that the proposed Delhi-Mumbai freight corridor, with Ludhiana being taken along, will change the face of his state once and for all.
Ludhiana became a part of the proposed corridor after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs cleared a proposal to this effect last year. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already laid a foundation stone in Ludhiana for this purpose.
Badal told FE in an interview the corridor, coupled with the two international airports coming up in the state, would provide the required boost to increase private investment in Punjab .
Railway sources told FE the freight corridor linking Ludhiana to the Kolkata and Mumbai ports would involve laying of a separate track between Ludhiana and Kolkata and Mumbai.
Badal said, first it was the Bathinda refinery with which was able to get Punjab its “single largest FDI for one project into the state since Independence” and now, the dedicated freight corridor would bring in an estimated Rs 11,446 crore.
Sources said once the dedicated corridor project was completed, the running of passenger trains and freight trains would be seggregated.