The Hindu Business Line : Kutch Rly to sign MoUs with Japanese cos

On the fast rack
The MoUs will be on project-to-project basis
The company is in talks with Japan International Co-operation Agency and Nippon Koei Company

Ahmedabad , Jan. 4

Kutch Railway Company Ltd (KRCL) is now set to sign memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with Japanese companies for various projects, including the proposed freight corridors between Delhi and Mumbai and Delhi and Kolkata that the Japanese are now eyeing in India.

Feasibility studies and techno-economic surveys for these two corridors, sanctioned by the Ministry of Railway, are under way and the Japanese may fund these, in the wake of reaffirmation of an MoU between the two countries during the recent visit of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to Tokyo.

The MoUs will, however, be on project-to-project basis for providing wide-ranging consultancy services and a whole range of issues, the KRCL Managing Director, Mr Yogendra Sharma, told Business Line here.

The company is already in talks with the Japan International Co-operation Agency, which represents the Japanese Government, and Nippon Koei Company Ltd, which is already working on four projects in India, including one of railway, he said.

Even as the company is closing shutters on its Ahmedabad office by March this year (its mainly operational-cum-management work will now be divided between New Delhi and Gandhidham (Kutch)), it is working on new projects to be taken up in the western State.

New projects

These include the double-tracking of the Gandhidham-Kandla railline, now being considered by the Railway Board, creating warehousing facilities at Gandhidham to attract business by sharing into aggregating of cargo, besides, of course, engaging in wide-ranging consultancy for railway projects, he said.

The Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad, had announced a special award of Rs 5 lakh to KRCL for completing its work economically by saving 10 per cent of the total cost involved and making it critical ahead of the schedule — the first phase was completed in March instead of June 2006 and the second phase in November, instead of December 2006.