The Government of India and the World Bank signed a USD 1.1 billion agreement towards the second loan for the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC), which involves construction of a rail freight corridor that will help faster and more efficient movement of raw materials and finished goods between the north and eastern parts of India. The project was approved by the World Bank Board on April 22, 2014.
“The EDFC will ease congestions choking the railway system and reduce travel-time for passenger trains plying on this arterial Ludhiana-Delhi-Mughal Sarai railway route. The corridor will add additional rail transport capacity, improve service quality and create higher freight capacity,” said Tarun Bajaj, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.
The first loan of USD 975 million for the 343 km Khurja-Kanpur section in the EDFC program was approved by the World Bank Board in May 2011 and is already under implementation. Tata- Aldesa JV, comprising Tata Projects India and Aldesa of Spain, won the contract from among 10 other bidders through an international competitive process. Another major contract, for systems, is under evaluation.
The Eastern Corridor is 1,839 km long and extends from Ludhiana to Kolkata. The World Bank is supporting the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) as a series of projects in which the three sections with a total route length of 1,133 km will be delivered sequentially, but with considerable overlap in their construction schedules. EDFC 2 will build the 393 km Kanpur-Mughal Sarai section in Uttar Pradesh. The Project will help increase the capacity of these freight-only lines by raising the axle-load limit from 22.9 to 25 tons and enable speeds of up to 100 km/hr. It will also help develop the institutional capacity of the DFCCIL to build and maintain the DFC infrastructure network.
The EDFC is part of India’s first Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) initiative – being built on two main routes – the Western and the Eastern Corridors.
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