The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCIL) has awarded general consultancy contract for Kanpur–Mughalsarai, Khurja–Ludhiana and Khurja–Dadri section of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor project to AECOM Asia Company Ltd at a cost of Rs 18.18 crore.
The general consultant will assist DFCCIL in finalising pre-qualification document, preparation of project including verification of site details, preparation of bid documents, pre-qualification bid documents and bid process management. “The contract will be awarded for civil, electrical and signalling works for construction of double electrified railway line to carry 25-tonne axle load trains at maximum speed of 100 km per hour,” said a senior official involved with the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project.
Construction of DFC project will provide transport infrastructure to carry heavy loaded trains and ease out congestion of train movement on existing Indian Railway network besides facilitating utilisation of surplus capacity to introduce new passenger services.
Currently, railways share in freight transportation is about 36 per cent of total goods transported in the country and the national transporter aims to increase it substantially. The DFCCIL is constructing 3,300 km long Eastern and Western freight corridors for exclusively movement of goods trains for Railways.
The 1,499 km long Western Dedicated Freight corridor from Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (Mumbai) passes through Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
The 1,839 km long Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor traverses states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
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The major part of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor is being funded by World Bank and the Western Dedicated Freight corridor is being funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
DFCCIL will be able to transport goods traffic at much higher average speed to facilitate improved utilisation of assets.
The World Bank loan for the execution of Phase-II and Phase-III portions of the project is likely to be sanctioned by March this year. The two phases cover Kanpur–Mughalsarai, Khurja–Ludhiana and Khurja–Dadri sections.
The Mughalsarai–Ludhiana section is being funded by World Bank. Loan for Phase-I of the project from Kanpur to Khurja section for construction of double electrified railway line has already been sanctioned.