The Hindu Business Line : Connecting India from every corner

The two sanctioned Dedicated Freight Corridors are only a part of a larger plan of building a quadrilateral of railway lines connecting the country’s four metro cities. The traffic between Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai is the heaviest, though the total area used by them is just 16 per cent of the entire Indian Railways network in the country.

Further, while passenger traffic is around 52 per cent, freight traffic on the route constitutes around 58 per cent and is slow because passenger trains are given preference over goods carriages, said a railway official.

“The four routes are under severe pressure and, recognising the need to relieve them of at least some freight traffic, the Railways has envisaged a quadrilateral of railway tracks, complemented by other connecting tracks criss-crossing these cities,” said the official.

The two routes sanctioned so far are the Western corridor between Dadri in Uttar Pradesh and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Navi Mumbai, via Ahmedabad, Palanpur, Rewari and Tughlakabad (Delhi); and an Eastern corridor connecting Dankuni (near Kolkata) to Ludhiana in Punjab, via Sonenagar, Mughalsarai, Allahabad and Khurja.

However, as funding is yet to be arranged and land still not acquired completely, construction will commence only from the next financial year, he said. The two projects, being undertaken by the PSU Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd, are expected to be commissioned by 2015 or 2016, if everything runs on schedule, he added.

Under the aegis of the Ministry of Railways, special units have been floated to construct additional railway tracks connecting the four cities, solely for the purpose of transmission of goods carriages. Interestingly, the Western corridor will come up on a radius of 150-200 km on one side of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and is expected to act as a backbone to the much touted DMIC.

The DFC is not aligned with the existing railway network of the country but is being built as a detour to it. This provides huge scope for various industries to develop around it and the Government has invited players for the purpose.

Spurring commercial activity

In collaboration with State governments, the Railways will encourage commercial activity in the region. For instance, the DFC has entered into a joint venture with the Gujarat State government to develop logistics parks along the double-line DFC tracks. It would provide scope for many commercial, banking and manufacturing units to come up along the network. The traffic generated by the activities of industries along the DMIC will also be captured by the DFC.

“We are still looking for land for the corridors and have only just begun construction on some parts on the Eastern corridor and near Surat, in the West. We have also started the construction of bridges in Gujarat. A total of 54 bridges have been planned to be constructed in the State,” said the official. Once land is acquired, the physical construction of work is expected to begin by the next financial year.

The length of the Western corridor is projected at 1,483 km while the Eastern stretch would be around 1,279 km. Of this, the maximum area exposed to a particular State would be in Uttar Pradesh, on the Eastern corridor (1,002 km), followed by Gujarat (565 km) and Rajasthan (553 km).

A total investment of Rs 28,179 crore has been planned for the two corridors, Rs 16,592 crore for the Western and Rs 11,587 for the Eastern, respectively.

The funding

A tie-up with the Japan International Co-operation Agency worth Rs 18,000 crore for funding the 950-km stretch between Vapi and Baroda was finalised in January 2009. Negotiations are on with Asian Development Bank, World Bank and others to fund rest of the project and should be finalised soon, according to the official.

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd is a special purpose vehicle created to undertake planning and development, mobilisation of financial resources and construction, maintenance and operation of the Dedicated Freight Corridors. DFCCIL was registered as a company under the Companies Act 1956 on October 30, 2006.

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