The Hindu Business Line : Work on rail freight corridors likely to start by Oct-Nov

Fund tracking
Japan to fund only the Western corridor from Delhi to JNPT.
Multiple funding agencies for Eastern corridor from Ludhiana to Dankuni (Kolkata).

Our Bureau

Chennai, March 31 Work on the two dedicated freight corridors — Eastern and Western — is expected to commence in October or November with the issue of funding the project sorted out recently, according to Mr K.C. Jena, Chairman, Railway Board.

Earlier, the Japanese government was planning to fund the projects.

However, it will now fund only the Western corridor from Delhi to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (Maharashtra).

The Eastern freight corridor connecting Ludhiana and Dankuni (Kolkata) will have multiple funding agencies, including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. Budgetary support will also be given, and if necessary funds from the market will be accessed, he told newspersons.

The Rs 28,000-crore freight corridor may suffer cost escalation and the revised number is being worked out, he said.

High-speed links

Mr Jena said a new thrust was given to passenger traffic with the planned high-speed corridor under a public-private-partnership (PPP) model. A study will be undertaken on the project that will involve six different routes across the country.

In Tamil Nadu, the high-speed corridor is being planned between Chennai and Ernakulum via Coimbatore and Bangalore. It will cost around Rs 1,000 crore per km and PPP will be the most viable model. However, the Railways rather than the private sector, would run the trains, he said.

The Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad, had said in his recent Railway Budget that a blue print was being prepared for a ‘High Density Network’.

This includes phased execution of capacity augmentation, including dedicated freight corridors, doubling, third and fourth lines, bye passes, flyovers and automatic signalling works over the next seven years at a cost of about Rs 75,000 crore.

For world-class

Mr Jena said the Indian Railways plans to make around 20 major stations in the country, including Chennai Central and Thiruvananthapuram Central in the Southern Railway, into “world class stations” with facilities on par with international railway standards. This will be done under the PPP model. The project will commence with the Delhi station.

The Minister had said in the Budget that PPP schemes would attract investment of Rs I lakh crore over the next five years for developing world class stations, rolling stock manufacturing, multi modal logistics parks and running of container trains.

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