Mumbai-Delhi freight corridor to cost Rs 6,400 crore

The ministry of shipping (mos) has estimated the cost of the proposed Mumbai-Delhi dedicated container freight rail corridor covering distance over 1,300 to 1,500 kms at Rs 64,00 crore.

The rail corridor, which is expected to ensure port connectivity and ease congestion at ports, will to cost Rs three crore per km in view of constructing major bridges over Narmada, Tapti and Thane creek, the ministry said in an approach paper on container rail corridors prepared by it.

Mooting a detailed feasibility study for Mumbai-Delhi freight corridor, the paper said that the project was already overdue and couldn't wait any longer.

"If the need for setting up a dedicated Mumbai-Delhi corridor finds favour, urgent action is required for envisaging a detailed feasibility study for the project. Such a project should aim at developing a modern, state -of-the-art multimodal rail freight corridor for movement of boxes and other traffic providing a world class service", the ministry added.

The feasibility study is likely to cost Rs one crore and has to be completed in two to four months, it said.

"Along with the feasibility study, action should be initiated to identify potential private partners, set up a special purpose vehicle (spv) and begin the process required for resource generation," it further added.

Identifying optimal route alignment between Mumbai and Delhi, the feasibility study should assess traffic potential for the period of the project and means of improving rail share, the paper said.

According to the approach paper prepared by the ministry of shipping, the capacity utilisation on the Delhi-Mumbai route was well above 140 per cent for the year 2003-04 and would go up beyond 160 per cent in 2006-07.

Currently, railways have no plan to augment the capacity of this line which is already oversaturated, it said. "Various capacity constraints have resulted in a situation, where the container train takes 47 hours to cover 1,340 km from Delhi to Mumbai," it said.

The paper added that the freight corridor can incorporate state-of-art features such as double stack containers, long trains carrying 10 times more containers per train, long block sections and high speeds.