Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project
This is one of the most ambitious projects of Indian Railways. In order to augment the rail transport capacity to meet the growing requirement of movement of freight traffic, the Indian Railways have decided to develop freight corridors along its busy trunk routes. Once completed would meet the transport requirements of the two busy trunk routes for the next 15 to 20 years and would also help segregation of passenger and freight traffic on these routes.
Western DFC – It will be of 1483 Km length. It will be from Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) in Mumbai to Tughlakabad and Dadri (U.P.) The Western corridor from JNPT to Tughlakabad/Dadri will pass via Surat, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Palanpur, Ajmer and Rewari and will be an electrified automatic double-line corridor, except a 32 km single line link from the main corridor to Tughlakabad.
Eastern DFC – It will be of 1806 km length. It will be from Ludhiana (Punjab) to Dankuni near Kolkata to be extended in future to serve the new deep sea port proposed in Kolkata. This will pass via Asansol, Gomoh, Sonnagar, Mughalsarai, Kanpur, Khurja and Saharanpur. It will be electrified single line on the Ludhiana-Khurja portion (426 kms.) and electrified automatic double line on the remaining portion.
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Western DFC will be funded substantially by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) under the Special Terms of Economic Partnership (STEP) scheme of the Government of Japan and will be a tied loan with the 30% of the total value of contracts being sourced from Japan. The first loan agreement for Engineering Services for phase-I (Rewari-Vadodara section of 920 kms.) has been signed on 27.10.09.
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The Eastern corridor, funding has been sought from World Bank and ADB. World Bank is expected to fund the 725 kms. Mughalsarai-Khurja portion of the Eastern corridor. Funding from ADB has been sought for the 426 kms. Khurja-Ludhiana portion. Both World Bank and ADB are expected to fund about 70% of the cost of the project sections funded by them and the loan negotiations are in advanced stage.
DFC Project Implementation status
•Eleven field units headed by Chief Project Managers have been set up in Mumbai, Surat, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Ajmer and Jaipur for Western route and at Ludhiana, Meerut, Kanpur and Allahabad for the Eastern route.
•Contracts have been awarded for detailed engineering survey including geo-technical investigations, collection and compilation of field data relating to L-Section, GAD for bridges, hydrological data and preparation of land plans for land acquisition wherever required.
•Contract for engagement of General Consultants for the work on Kanpur-Khurja section of Eastern DFC has been awarded to do the detailed design, prepare standard World Bank compliant documents and also for the project management consultancy.
•Consultancy contract for Business Plan was awarded in September 2008 and the Business Plan is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2010.
•Final Location Survey has been completed on Eastern corridor (Ludhiana-Sonnagar portion) and the Western corridor.
•Notifications for land acquisition under Section-20A of the Indian Railways (Amendment) Act for land requirement over 2400 kms. And for 20-E over 850 kms. have been issued.
•Construction work on both Western and Eastern corridors have commenced after award of contract for 54 major and important bridges between Utran and Vaitarna on the Western corridor and on the 105 km. New Ganjkhwaja to New Karwandia (on Sonnagar-Mughalsarai section) of the Eastern corridor.
The project is targeted for completion in 2016-17
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