Govt keen to expedite Dedicated Rail Freight Corridor project
Worried about persistent delays and cost escalation in its ambitious dedicated rail freight corridor project, the government has sought a list of all components of the project that are delayed due to various orders passed by the judiciary as well as the National Green Tribunal (NGT). . .
The urgency from the Center has come as the commissioning target for the project, which is scheduled for June 2022, is less than a year away.
In a recent review meeting of the much-delayed project, which was chaired by the Prime Minister himself, the governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat were asked to complete the land acquisition process, relief and rehabilitation work as well as the construction of over-road bridges at the earliest. was asked to complete. .
Conceived 15 years ago by the previous UPA government, the construction of this project started in 2014 itself. This includes separate corridors exclusively for the movement of goods trains.
The freight corridor project basically consists of two alignments, a 1,875 km long Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor that will connect Ludhiana in Punjab with Dankuni in West Bengal. The second alignment is the 1,506-km-long Western Freight Corridor, which will connect Dadri in Uttar Pradesh with the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Mumbai.
The total cost of the project is Rs 95,238 crore and is being funded by the World Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency called JICA.
During the meeting, Shri Narendra Modi asked the Government of Maharashtra to acquire and hand over about 0.27 hectares of private land by October 15, 2021 and even prioritize the project and complete all the works given on time. asked to complete.
According to highly placed sources, the Gujarat government was asked by the Prime Minister to complete one road over bridge by September 30, 2021 and 14 other bridges by December 2021.
Meanwhile, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL), which is implementing the project, has said in a progress report to the Ministry of Railways that its financial progress is 71 per cent as of May 2021. All contracts for both the eastern and western corridors worth Rs 56,952 crore have been allocated, while the contractual progress till May 2021 is Rs 40,477 crore (71 per cent).
Out of a total of 540 bridges, only 311 major bridges have been constructed till May 2021, which means only 58 per cent of them have been completed.
Also, out of total 302 road over bridges on both the stretches, only 93 have been completed. The progress in construction of under-road bridges, however, is slightly better as 1,105 out of 1,582 of them have been constructed till May 2021.
However, most importantly, only 131 km of tracks have been laid under the project during the current financial year.
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