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Western Dedicated Rail Freight Corridor’s contract for the 640 km stretch between Rewari in Haryana and Palanpur in Gujarat is likely to be awarded to Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Sojitz consortium by June 2013. The Rs 6,700 crore contract will be India’s single largest Railway contract awarded to a private developer.
Western Freight Corridor is part of the ambitious Dedicated Freight Corridor project, being implemented by the Railway Ministry through the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corp of India Ltd (DFCCIL), which aims to connect the important freight lanes between Delhi and Mumbai in the west and Ludhiana and Dankuni in the east.
The 1,499 km western corridor will traverse the distance from Dadri to Mumbai, passing through the states of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra and the 1,839 km eastern corridor, starting from Ludhiana in Punjab, will pass through the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and terminate at Dankuni in West Bengal.
Initial work on the Dedicated Freight Corridor project commenced in 2006 and the project is expected to be completed by 2017.
The Dedicated Freight Corridor project has picked up pace since the beginning of 2013. The first contract for the corridor project was awarded in January to the Tata-Aldesa JV for constructing the 343 km double track line between Bhaupur (Kanpur) and Khurja on the eastern corridor. The Tata-Aldesa JV commenced work on the stretch in March.
As of April 2013 about 90 per cent of the land for the Dedicated Freight Corridor has been acquired and by the end of 2013-14 contracts will be awarded for 1,500 km on the corridor lines, of which 950-1,000 km will be from the western corridor while 400 km will be from the eastern corridor.
Dedicated freight network is a key infrastructure project for Indian Railways as it will segregate the passenger network from freight network.
The freight corridors will enable the Railways to compete against the Roadways with regards to freight traffic. In 1950, the share of Railways in freight transport was around 89 per cent but since then it has declined to 36 per cent, while the share of Roadways has reached 57 per cent.
According to the Indian Economic Survey 2012-13, freight traffic by Railways has been comparatively higher showing a growth of 4.7 per cent in April-December 2012. This upward turn is a good sign as with India's freight traffic projected to grow at more than 7 per cent p.a. there is an urgent need to add more freight lines over the coming years.
The Dedicated Freight Corridors will help India make a quantum leap in increasing the Railway’s transportation capacity by building high-capacity, higher-speed Dedicated Freight Corridors along the Golden Quadrilateral.
Breakthrough period for Railways
Railways investment grew by 16 per cent in FY13 and is projected to grow by 20 per cent in FY14 with project awards expected for Dedicated Freight Corridor. For the 12th Plan period an ambitious target of Rs one lakh crore has been set to attract investments through PPP route.
So far Railways have not fared well with the PPP model mainly as Railway projects are capital intensive and have long gestation period. However, this trend is likely to change in the 12th Plan period as areas like Elevated Rail Corridor in Mumbai, parts of the Dedicated Freight Corridor, redevelopment of stations, power generation/energy saving projects, freight terminals are all proposed for private investment.
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