DEDICATED FREIGHT CORRIDOR

New Delhi, Jan. 30: 

Two bidders, both led by Japanese companies, are in the race for a Rs 9,000-crore contract that is part of the dedicated freight corridor. One is a consortium of Sojitz Corporation-Ircon and the other Mitsui-Larsen & Toubro.

Both these companies are at the pre-qualification stage for 625 km of civil work on the Rewari-Iqbalgarh/Palanpur section, which forms part of the Western Corridor.

This project will form part of the Rs 15,000-crore worth of contracts the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd will award in the next financial year.

Bidders have to rope in a Japanese partner as the project is funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, which mandates a Japanese lead partner.

The Western Corridor — which is a track from JN Port in Maharashtra to Dadri in Uttar Pradesh — covers 1,483 km.

The traffic on this corridor is expected to mainly comprise containers from western ports of JN Port, Mumbai, Pipavav, Mundra and Kandla to container depots located in northern India.

EASTERN CORRIDOR

For the civil work of the 343-km Khurja-Bhaupur section, which is part of the Eastern Corridor, the shortlisting has been done. The bidders include China Railway First Group–Soma, Corsan-Kalindi-C&C, Alarko-NCC and HCC-Alstom.

The Eastern Corridor is the World Bank arm of the dedicated freight corridor. “We aim to award these contracts by the quarter-ending September in 2012-13,” the official said.

World bank loan

The World Bank has signed a loan agreement of $975 million for funding a part of the Eastern Corridor.

The 1,800-km Eastern Corridor — linking Ludhiana in Punjab with Dankuni in West Bengal — will cater to a number of traffic streams — coal for the power plants in the northern region of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and parts of Rajasthan from the Eastern coal fields, finished steel, foodgrains, cement, fertilisers, limestone from Rajasthan to steel plants in the east and general goods.

mamuni@thehindu.co.in

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