The Hindu Business Line : ‘Railways may have to change alignment for freight corridor’

New Delhi, July 11 If the Railways dedicated freight corridor project has to be implemented within the stipulated time of five years, then the proposed route (alignment) may need to be changed to avoid building 873 road over bridges (RoBs). This is what Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL) team suggests in a report to the Railway Ministry.

The current alignment of dedicated freight corridor, which is proposed by the RITEs study, goes alongside the existing Indian Railways (IR) track and thus involves dismantling of several railway stations, breaking into habitations alongside stations, increasing height of the existing RoBs already present on tracks, points out the DFCCIL report.

STRUCTURES

According to the RITEs report, the 1,483 km long western corridor involves building 262 major bridges, 505 new RoBs, 200 new road under bridges (RuBs), raising the height of the 24 existing RoBs and 33 flyovers. The 1,280 km long eastern corridor involves 104 major bridges, 368 new RoBs, 189 RuBs, raising the nine existing RoBs and 21 flyovers. While the western corridor is estimated to cost Rs 16,592 crore, the eastern corridor is estimated to cost Rs 11,589 crore.

PROBLEMS

The team of officers set up for DFCCIL, that has started work on implementing 320 km of tracks on each corridor, has submitted a report to the Railway Ministry pointing out that these hurdles will significantly delay the project implementation.

The proposed freight corridor alignment is almost like a track doubling work — two new tracks run alongside the present IR track, point out officials. And when there are major stations, the route takes a diversion only to join the present IR track at a later stage. This approach was adopted to avoid major land acquisition requirement as land belonging to the Railways exist along the tracks. However, the time and cost overrun in building RoBs would offset the land acquisition required for the alternate route.

Parallel tracks

“At present, every year, the Indian Railways manages to build some 300 km of parallel rail tracks next to the present network on its entire network since these works involve clearing habitations, facilities right next to the present track,” said an official pointing out that the Railways wants to build an ambitious 2,762 km of parallel tracks for freight corridors.

“From one of the studied routes, there were 44 railway stations handling both passenger and freight traffic, out of which about 18 had to be dismantled. Now, if we build the freight corridor track in the station area, then the station area shifts further from the present railway network.

“Since the DFC track would be positioned between the station area and present IR track, high capacity over bridges need to be built to serve the IR track,” official sources said adding that such routes are likely to face opposition from locals given the inconvenience that would be caused.

Incidentally, another Ministry official pointed out that the cost of building rail link between Ahmedabad and Mumbai on the western corridor accounts for almost 40 per cent of the total cost of Rs 16,592 crore.

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