The Hindu Business Line : Rail freight corridor

RITES, the consulting arm of Indian Railways, plans to submit its report on the dedicated rail freight corridor to the Railways by December 31. It is also providing inputs to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for its parallel techno-feasibility study on the rail freight corridor.

"We expect to submit the draft report by December 31," said Mr V. K. Agarwal, Managing Director, RITES Ltd, adding that the company has submitted the inception plan to Railways. "We are undertaking the route study and traction study for the freight corridor," he said.

On the extent of elasticity that one would see in the route, Mr Agarwal said: "Having decided that Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Mumbai would be the end points, we are trying to work out the best possible options within that framework so that the corridor is made the best use of."

"We are also doing the traction study as to whether it should be diesel or electric," he added, declining to divulge any further details.

He added that RITES is working in cooperation with the Japanese agency, JICA, which is carrying out its own study on the freight corridor.

As for the exact route, it may be recalled that the Gujarat Government had written to the Railways requesting that the route of the corridor be so designed as to let Gujarat ports such as Mundra, Kandla, Pipavav, Bedi, Porbandar and Dholera be connected through short feeder routes.

When asked about the freight corridor, the Railway Board Chairman, Mr J. P. Batra, said that the corridor would be built for heavy axle load wagons so that it can carry wagons of 25-30 tonnes per axle. Moreover, India would consult those countries with experience in high-speed heavy-haul rail traffic, including South Africa, Brazil, the US and Australia, said Mr Batra.

The Government has announced its intention to construct a dedicated rail freight corridor along the Golden Quadrilateral. Initially, during the first phase, the Government plans to construct the rail tracks between Delhi and Mumbai and Delhi and Kolkata. The cost for these two sets of tracks is expected to be about Rs 25,000 crore.

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