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Showing posts with label DFC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DFC. Show all posts

Friday, 26 August 2016

07:47

Capacity augmentation on Delhi-Chennai & Howrah-Mumbai routes will be a “game changer”

Capacity augmentation on Delhi-Chennai & Howrah-Mumbai routes will be a “game changer”

Railways today said the capacity augmentation on Delhi-Chennai and Howrah-Mumbai routes will be a “game changer” and aimed at meeting the increased freight traffic expected by 2020. Trunk route expansion not to affect DFC, says A.K.Mital, Chairman, Railway Board

Railways today said the capacity augmentation on Delhi-Chennai and Howrah-Mumbai routes will be a “game changer” and aimed at meeting the increased freight traffic expected by 2020.

Railways has got cabinet approval for nine rail expansion projects involving laying a total of 1937 km long additional line in 11 states to ensure smooth freight and passenger movement.

“Currently, we have capacity of handling 1200 million tonnes (MT) freight loading. But by 2020, the transportation requirement will be 1500 MT,” Chairman Railway Board (CRB) AK Mital said here.

So unless we augment the capacity, it will not be possible, Mital added.

Asked whether the capacity augmentation on main trunk routes will affect the prospects of the upcoming East and West Dedicated Freight Corridors Mital said “It will not.” Mital further said requirement of railways for increased capacity is sooner than later while the completion of DFC will take some time besides DFC path is different from the decision taken on the proposed routes.

Eastern DFC will cater to the freight traffic from Dankuni to Ludhiana while Western DFC meant to transport goods between Dadri and Mumbai.

He further said “There is no land acquisition involved in doubling or tripling projects as it is already available with railways. But DFC needs to acquire land for laying the line and land acquisition is a problem.

Besides, two proposed DFC will take another 8/10 years and we cannot wait that long. So we decided to go ahead with the capacity augmentation programme.” Describing today’s capacity expansion decision as “game changer in days to come”, Mital said it would cost Rs 21,000 crore while the completion cost will be Rs 24,000 crore.

Source:RailNews 
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Thursday, 18 August 2016

16:28

Railways is expected to procure 200 high power locomotives from Japan.

Railways is expected to procure 200 high power locomotives from Japan.

New Delhi: Railways is contemplating to renegotiate loan condition with Japan for procuring high horse power electric locomotives for the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) as the procurement award is stuck over the pricing front.

Railways’ ambitious plan to acquire 9000 high horse-power (HP) locomotives from Japan for hauling double stack containers on the Western DFC has come to a dead end with no further progress for more than last seven months.

Railways has found the price of Rs 50 crore per locomotive quoted by Kawasaki-led Japanese consortium too high and sought its reduction by almost half.

While the Japanese consortium has not reduced the price as desired by Railways, there was no further movement since January, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

“Since we will be getting the 12,000 HP locomotive at Rs 25 crore from our upcoming Madhepura plant, the price offered by the Japanese consortium is not acceptable,” the official said.

Western DFC is entirely funded by JICA loan and as per the loan condition Railways has to procure locomotives from Japan.

As a way forward, Railways is contemplating to renegotiate the loan condition so that it can go for international bidding.

Railways is expected to procure 200 high power locomotives from Japan. The loco contract is estimated to be about Rs 4500 crore and the first batch of locomotives is expected to arrive two years after awarding of the contract.

The Japanese consortium comprising five companies including Kawasaki, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electric and Mitsubishi Corporate had submitted their bids in October last year for procurement of the 9000 HP locomotives for WDFC.

As per the agreement, 40 modern locomotives with 9000 HP and IGBT technology will be imported from Japan, 60 will be assembled at the Railways’ Dankuni facility and the rest 100 will be manufactured at Dankuni.

The high-power locomotives will be used to haul double-stack containers on WDFC.

WDFC will cover around 1,534 kms from Dadri to Mumbai, passing through Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.


Source:RailNews 
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Wednesday, 29 June 2016

08:53

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation wants to install Train Protection Warning System (TPWS) in its entire network

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation wants to install Train Protection Warning System (TPWS) in its entire network

DFC Corp seeks to install European anti-collision tech

The corporation has written to the Railway Board to give permission to install the system on the 1,839 km Eastern corridor barring a small stretch between Sonnagar and Dankuni, which is to be constructed on public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation wants to install European anti-collision technology called Train Protection Warning System (TPWS) in its entire network to make it the safest freight train operation in the world.
The corporation has written to the Railway Board to give permission to install the system on the 1,839 km Eastern corridor barring a small stretch between Sonnagar and Dankuni, which is to be constructed on public-private partnership (PPP) mode. So, the proposal, that requires an expenditure of an additional Rs 500 crore, is to install the system between Ludhiana, Punjab and Sonnagar, West Bengal, covering around 1,350 km, DFC MD Adhesh Sharma said on Friday.
“According to the agreement with Japan, we are installing TPWS anyway in the Western corridor because the lending agency, JICA wanted the operations to be safe. Now we have approached Railways to let us install it in Eastern corridor as well,” he said.
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The Western Corridor, spanning 1,483 km between Khurja in Uttar Pradesh and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in the Maharashtra-Gujarat border, will have TPWS for Rs 600 crore.
Incidentally, Indian Railways found TPWS to be prohibitively expensive and did not pursue installing it except for a small stretch on the Delhi-Agra route. But for a new project like DFC, cost is not an issue and the rate of return on investment is also high enough to justify the expenditure. The first section of 56 km long track between Durgawati and Sasaram is expected to be operational for regular freight operation in July after getting Commissioner Railway Safety clearances.
“The 56 km line was commissioned in May this year after trial run. But regular freight operation will resume by July after getting CRS clearances,” he said.
With December 2019 as the final deadline in mind, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation has expedited awarding contracts for speedy execution of the project in both Eastern and Western corridors.
The Rs 91,459 crore project envisages the construction of total 3342 km long track for the exclusive movement of freight in a faster and environment-friendly way.




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Wednesday, 3 February 2016

23:28

Tenders worth Rs 17,500 crore related to dedicated freight corridor (DFC) project will be finalised by March

Tenders worth Rs 17,500 crore related to dedicated freight corridor (DFC) project will be finalised by March

Vadodara: Tenders worth Rs 17,500 crore related to dedicated freight corridor (DFC) project will be finalised by March, said Minister of State for Railways Mr.Manoj Sinha here on Saturday.

Talking to reporters here, he said most of the land acquisition and statutory clearances for DFC have been completed or obtained. Project execution has also begun with the award of civil contracts for 1,100km route.

The ambitious Rs 81,459-crore project envisages freight rail lines along the western corridor between Delhi and Mumbai and the eastern corridor between Ludhiana and Howrah, running through Delhi.

Tenders worth Rs 17,500 crore on the western corridor will be finalised by March, he said.

Sinha, on a two-day visit of Vadodara division of Western Railway, said work on DFC, meant for faster movement of goods, will be completed in phases between 2017 and 2019.

Railways is constructing the western corridor from Dadri to Jawaharlal Nehru Port (1,502km) and the eastern corridor from Ludhiana to Dankuni (West Bengal) (1,840kms).

“Railways is constructing separate corridors to speed up transportation of goods. Prevailing scenario is not very good and everybody wants faster freight movement.”

Sinha said currently goods trains are moving at a speed of 25/26 km per hour. The speed will go up to 100 km per hour on the DFC.”

The entire western corridor is being funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), while the World Bank is providing financial assistance for the eastern corridor from Mughalsarai to Ludhiana.

Seeking private investment in rail infrastructure, Sinha asked the industry to come forward to participate in capacity augmentation. “You can invest liberally in rail infrastructure development as Railways need big investment.”

“Due to various constrains, expansion of Railway network could not take place while demand for more trains and amenities from the people kept on increasing. “You (private sector can invest liberally in rail infrastructure development as Railways need big investment,” he said.

PMO is regularly monitoring major infrastructure projects, especially those concerning Railways, he said.

“We are also working on setting up the first Railway University of the country at Vadodara. Educational Consultants India, a PSU, is finalising the project,” Sinha said.

Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel has promised full cooperation to the Railway Ministry in setting up the university which will promote research, he said.
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Friday, 23 October 2015

09:01

Will Suresh Prabhu be forced to Quit as Railway Minister?

Will Suresh Prabhu be forced to Quit as Railway Minister?

Despite criticism for not having spent enough on new projects, the railway minister has been quick to initiate reforms in some of the Railway’s biggest problem areas, says Sudheer Pal Singh

On February 26 this year, at the beginning of his maiden Rail Budget speech in Parliament, Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu philosophically remarked: “I asked myself, ‘Hey Prabhu! How will all this happen?'”

He was referring to the daunting task that lay before him of reforming the Indian Railways that had come to be viewed as a monolith.

Seven months on, the comment seems to have returned to haunt the railway minister with questions being asked about his performance.

If reports forecasting his shift from the rail ministry are to be believed, he might indeed require the almighty’s blessings to retain his portfolio.

The Prime Minister’s Office, PMO, in a recent letter, rapped Prabhu for slow progress on key projects and poor spending of the Gross Budgetary Support, GBS, or the Centre’s financial assistance.

The PMO’s letter came within a year of Prabhu assuming charge of the ministry after being hand-picked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The letter was followed by a flurry of media reports criticising the former technocrat on multiple counts. But is Prabhu really the ‘fallen god of Indian Railways,’ as one report described him?

An analysis of data on key parameters of the Railways’ performance and the initiatives undertaken reveals that the former chartered accountant-cum-banker might not have fared too badly.

In less than a year in office, Prabhu has been quick to grasp the main reasons why the Railways are in dire straits.

Some of these are: Complete saturation of existing rail lines, many of which are working on more than 100 per cent capacity utilisation, thus choking growth in earnings; inter-mixing of major freight lines with heavy-density passenger routes; cross-subsidisation of passenger fares with freight rates; the constraints of funding sourced as GBS; and popular resentment over passenger amenities.

The ministry has been working to ensure the unclogging of rail line capacities, which was the single biggest theme of Prabhu’s Rail Budget.

Network decongestion is done in three ways: Construction of new lines, taking up doubling projects and gauge conversion.

Data shows the Indian Railways’ capital expenditure on the three heads rose over 20 per cent to Rs 6,880 crore (Rs 68.80 billion) in the first six months (April to September) of the current financial year compared to Rs 5,733 crore (Rs 57.33 billion) last fiscal.

This indicates that the ministry has broadly got its fundamentals right. This expenditure is part of the Rs 1 lakh crore capex planned by the ministry in the current fiscal, which is a historic 53 per cent jump over last year’s plan outlay of Rs 65,000 crore (Rs 650 billion).

In this year’s budget, Prabhu had earmarked 77 projects that involved doubling of existing lines, laying new lines and gauge conversion in 24 over-saturated corridors.

The ministry has now ramped up the pace to implement these 77 projects and has chalked out a detailed plan to invest Rs 90,000 crore (Rs 900 billion) to commission them in some of the most saturated corridors.

These include the Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Howrah, Delhi-Chennai, Howrah-Chennai and Ahmedabad-Rajkot routes.

“We will, in the current fiscal, commission 2,500-km-long corridors as projects for new lines, gauge conversion and doubling of existing tracks on certain busy stretches,” says V K Gupta, member-engineering, Railway Board.

He adds that of the 77 projects, 28 have received approval in principle from Niti Aayog. Tenders for these have been invited and work is expected to commence in a few months.

A wider network

The ministry has also taken steps to tackle the issue of de-coupling freight traffic from passenger lines.

For the first time in several years, the dedicated freight corridor project, a major initiative in this direction, is showing signs of becoming a reality.

The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation, DFCC, the special purpose vehicle commissioning the ambitious Rs 82,000 crore project, has finalised contracts worth Rs 17,500 crore (Rs 175 billion) since November last year.

This is in stark contrast to the contracts worth Rs 12,500 crore (Rs 125 billion) awarded in the preceding nine years.

According to DFCC Managing Director Adesh Sharma, contracts worth an additional Rs 17,000 crore (Rs 170 billion) would be awarded by March 2016, leading to India rolling out the first freight-only rail line by the end of 2018.

DFCC is building over 3,000 km of double track, freight-specific lines from Ludhiana (Punjab) to Dankuni (West Bengal) as Eastern DFC and from Dadri (Uttar Pradesh) to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (Mumbai) as Western DFC.

The project is aimed at decongesting the railways network by separating freight traffic from passenger lines.

“More than 85 per cent of land for the project has been acquired and funding has been tied up,” Sharma says. He adds that DFCC would commission its first pilot project on a 56-km stretch between Durgawati and Sasaram in Bihar by March next year.

The crucial issue of sourcing institutional funding for projects is also being dealt with. Shortly after the rail budget, the ministry had announced tying up Rs 1.5 lakh crore (Rs 15 trillion) from Life Insurance Corporation over five years.

The first tranche of the funding, around Rs 2,500 crore (Rs 25 billion), is likely to be received soon.

Responding to allegations of lack of spending and questions on his performance, Prabhu recently said his ministry would “far exceed” its capital expenditure target of Rs 8.5 lakh crore (Rs 85 trillion) set for the next five years, through 2019.

And, that it would also exceed the current fiscal’s budgeted target of over Rs 1 lakh crore (Rs 10 trillion). “The budget did not talk about the DFC project, the funding for which, around Rs 82,000 crore (Rs 820 billion), was recently approved by the Union Cabinet,” Prabhu said last week. “We have already issued contracts worth Rs 15,000 crore in the six months of the current fiscal. The rest will also come soon.”

He added that additional spending would materialise from two other initiatives of the ministry, which included “using the money from customers like Coal India and Steel Authority of India for rail evacuation projects and port connectivity projects.”

Despite all the work, Prabhu’s first year in office will be remembered for the spate of train accidents, particularly derailments, that have claimed many lives and his ministry’s inability to speed up the promised high-speed service between Delhi and Agra.

Prabhu had to chair an emergency meeting of general managers last month to identify and deal with issues of passenger safety.

The effort to roll out a high-speed line was also stymied after the commissioner of railway safety denied clearance to the Delhi-Agra service.

According to R Sivadasan, former financial commissioner at Indian Railways, Prabhu has done well, but needs to fine-tune his priorities. “He is the best railway minister so far and must not lose the portfolio,” Sivadasan says. “But he must understand that more money needs to be spent on track renewal to bring down derailments and to improve the carrying capacity of the network. Decongestion will happen automatically. It appears he is not being briefed properly by the current board.”

Sivadasan, known for turning finances around during the tenure of Lalu Prasad Yadav as rail minister, rejects the allegations of lack of spending and says the bulk of the spending typically happens in the second half of the fiscal when project activity picks up.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
  • Capex on decongestion projects increased 20 per cent to Rs 6,880 crore in April-September 2015
  • Rs 1.5 lakh crore in funding  secured from LIC  over five years
  • Tenders to be invited for 28 projects over the next few months
  • 77 projects worth  Rs 90,000 crore  to be commissioned on 24 saturated corridors this fiscal
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Monday, 12 October 2015

17:47

INR 100 Crore facility in 10-12 Ac to come up at Ajni to maintain 12000 HP Locos

INR 100 Crore facility in 10-12 Ac to come up at Ajni to maintain 12000 HP Locos

Nagpur: Buoyed by the successful maintenance of locos and transition of electric loco shed at Ajni, the Railway Board has offered another major facility and training centre to maintain 12,000 horse power (HP) locos at Ajni under the Nagpur Central Railway.

According to railway sources, the Rs.100 crore facility will come up in 10-12 acre with public-private partnership (PPP) near existing loco shed at Ajni where huge space is available. Railways is giving top priority to construction of freight related projects on PPP basis.

Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) OP Singh confirmed that project to maintain 12,000 HP locos was coming up at Ajni. “The electric locos that will be manufactured at Madhepura in Bihar will be maintained at Ajni. Tenders for the project have been opened and entire process is being handled and managed by the Railway Board,” Singh said.

wap7The entire new facility will have the latest equipment. Ajni loco shed, spread in 18.5 acres, presently maintains WAG-7 & WAG-9 locos used for hauling freight trains and WAP-7 engines used for premium trains like Duronto and Rajdhani.

However, the locos currently maintained at Ajni are 6,000 HP locomotives. These engines can transport up to 5,500 tonne material consisting of 58 wagons. However, 12,000 HP engines will be able to ferry 10,000 tonne goods with double the number of wagons what are being used now.

Sources said the 12,000 HP locos would be operated on the Rs.81,459 crore ambitious dedicated freight corridor (DFC), meant for faster goods movement. The project is expected to be completed by 2019 and before the DFC is ready railways wants the basic infrastructure to be ready.

With the new loco maintenance facility, a training institute at the same place for staff has been planned. The project is expected to be in place in next two-three years. The decision was taken after executive director (electrical) Sudhir Kumar and DRM Singh had met in Nagpur. “The duo had also visited the spot at Ajni,” sources said.

The Ajni loco shed after its transition is continuously marching ahead. Despite having a capacity of maintaining 175 locos annually, it has achieved a target of 208, that too with existing staff and infrastructure. The locos maintained at Ajni are moving across the Indian Railways network.

The Ajni loco shed, set up in 1990, will complete 25 years on October 22, and Central Railway has planned a host of cultural and sports competitions to celebrate the success of the shed which has come a long way.
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Friday, 4 September 2015

10:07

UAE Foreign Affairs Minister discusses on Cooperation in Railway Sector with Suresh Prabhu

UAE Foreign Affairs Minister discusses on Cooperation in Railway Sector with Suresh Prabhu

New Delhi: UAE Foreign Affairs Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyam today met Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu here and discussed on possible cooperation on rail sector between both countries.

UAE Minister was told about the various opportunities of investment and ongoing rail projects in the country, said a senior Railway Ministry official. They exchanged views on ways to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries, especially at the level of transport and infrastructure sector, as well as major rail network projects and how best to benefit from the Indian experience in this area.

He was told about the upcoming Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), high speed rail corridors, rail connectivity with satellite towns, development of about 400 stations and coach manufacturing, he said.

Railways is seeking private investments in big tickets projects like high speed rail corridor, DFC, redevelopment of major stations among others.

Senior officials from both sides were present during the meeting which lasted about 30 minutes.
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Thursday, 2 July 2015

10:02

Tata Projects Ltd receives formal Letter to start Works on 300 Km Western DFC project

Tata Projects Ltd receives formal Letter to start Works on 300 Km Western DFC project

Mumbai: Tata Projects-led consortium has bagged the contract for two phases of Dedicated Freight Corridor (Western Region) for a stretch of 300 km beating others in a competitive bidding. The company has received the final letter from the government to start the work on the project.

The project would help India to have an infrastructure to run rail freight at more than 100 km per hour with 32.5 tonne axle load capacity of the tracks. This is on par with the best in the US, Russia and China. At present, the freight runs on passenger tracks with axle load bearing capacity of 22.5 tonnes.

The western dedicated freight corridor is a 1,600 km stretch that the government has planned to allocate through competitive bidding. In the first phase, L&T had won another around 400 km stretch in 2013. The entire DFCCIL (Western) runs from Dadri in Haryana to JNPT in Maharashtra.

“We defeated another consortium partners including Soritz and L&T. The target completion and start work date would be decided in due course,” said a senior company official.

Japan International Cooperation Agency would fund the Rs 3,000 crore project, the official added. Prior to winning the stretch in the western corridor, Tata Projects had won a 350 km, Rs 5,500 crore stretch in the Eastern Freight Corridor, which the company is building jointly with Spanish construction giant Aldesa.

The entire eastern project is around 1,839 km long and runs from Dhankuni in West Bengal to Ludhiana in Punjab. The company has started work and expects to complete it by 2016 for trial runs. The commissioning would take place by end 2017.

The official said the project would help to take over the heavy burden of freight from the passenger rail tracks and roads. At present, around 60 per cent of the freight traffic moves on golden quadrilateral, which would definitely get de-clogged.

The existing trunk routes of Howrah-Delhi on the Eastern Corridor and Mumbai-Delhi on the Western Corridor are highly saturated. The line capacity utilisation varies between 115 per cent and 150 per cent.

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India was incorporated under Companies Act in October 2006 to take on projects approved for a cost of Rs 28,181 crore.
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Thursday, 25 June 2015

21:00

Railways to award High Value Contracts in the Next 6 months: Suresh Prabhu

Railways to award High Value Contracts in the Next 6 months: Suresh Prabhu

New Delhi: “We are focusing on adding capacity, modernising Railways. We will give out high value contracts for rail infra in the next 6 months,” he said. “Currently we are negotiating with various companies for funding rail capex,” Prabhu said.  “We need to focus on infra sector for growth in India. Infra growth directly relates to GDP growth in India,” he added.

With a focus on long-term growth of India, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday said that his ministry is looking at $500 billion investment in Railways in the next 10-12 years.

According to Prabhu, “Railways has not grown considering low investments in the sector. Cargo and passenger traffic has suffered due to low investments,” he said. Prabhu stressed on the need to improve logistics support in India.

Prabhu also cited the advantages of Cabinet giving its approval for the revised cost estimate of Rs 81,459 crore for the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) Project.

“Dedicated Freight Corridor gets big boost. It will drastically change the Rail, there will be 50% jump in freight,” he has tweeted earlier in the day. “DFC will increase Rail revenues, add speed to goods movement, reduce congestion, passenger trains will run at increased speed, punctuality,” Prabhu had said in his tweets.

According to Prabhu, “DFC plays a big role in PM mission Make in India as cost, time of goods movement improves, will create jobs.” He estimates that it will take 3-4 years time to complete DFC.

The Cabinet on Wednesday gave its approval for the revised cost estimate of DFC Project, including land costs and financing plan. The corridor will pass through Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan.

The revised cost estimate comprises construction cost of Rs 73,392 crore of the Eastern and Western DFC. The land acquisition cost will be Rs 8,067 crore. This excludes the cost of the 534-km Sonnagar-Dankuni section proposed to be implemented through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) route
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Sunday, 14 June 2015

10:42

Debroy panel report with receptive ministry

Debroy panel report with receptive ministry

New Delhi: A committee headed by Bibek Debroy on restructuring of the country’s railways, presented its final report to the ministry on Friday. Debroy, vice-chairman of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the weekend.

Some of the recommendations in the 319-page report are likely to meet opposition from staff unions but senior officials said the government was likely to adopt the proposals on setting up a regulator, on accounting practices and reorganisation of railway services.

The regulator, as envisioned by the committee, would be independent of the ministry and have quasi-judicial powers on rates, safety rules, fair access, service standards, licensing and setting technical standards.

The panel has also recommended giving non-discriminatory access on new tracks being built under the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) to both Indian Railways (IR) and private operators. “For this purpose, DFC Corporation should be made autonomous and separated from IR,” it has said.

The proposal to merge the various railway service cadres is also likely to be accepted, with prospective effect. “One round of meeting with the Union Public Service Commission on this matter has already happened,” said an official.

According to Debroy, the silo structures of the eight Group-A services within IR has hit team work. He has suggested either amalgamation of all eight existing services into a unified Railways Service or merging these into an IR Technical Service and IR Logistics Service; the panel has recommended the latter. The panel has also recommended lateral flow from elsewhere — chartered accountants, bankers, financial management experts, research assistants and scientists.

The recommendations on accounting are also likely to be adopted, for better calculation of costs. Till now the railway had focused on expenditure accounting, said an official. “With the diminishing government funding, the railways have little option but to look for non-government sources of funds. This imperative is a major driver for refinements in the way railways prepares and maintains accounts and costs its businesses,” the panel has said.

According to Debroy, the railways have given little attention to revising the norms for apportionment of joint costs and the system also neither tracks assets nor assesses the liabilities.

The committee has drawn a time line for implementation of the proposed recommendations for the first five years. This will involve a transition to commercial accounting, greater decentralisation to the zones and cleaning up of finances between the government and the railways in the first two years. Then, setting up the Railways Regulatory Authority of India and implementing human resource changes in the next three years.
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Monday, 16 March 2015

07:43

Dedicated Freight Corridor -DFC Now On Track

The Bombay High Court (HC) approval of the alignment of the JNPT-Rewari Dedicated Fr
eight Corridor (DFC), including the removal of 543 mangroves in Dahanu Taluka, earlier this week has finally cleared the decks for the project.

Long touted as the railways’s game-changer, it is expected to be in line for a 2019 completion. The last of the nods now required is that of the Dahanu Taluka Environment Protection Authority (DTEPA) for replacement of the 543 mangroves. According to the rules, the DFC will need to plant 10 mangroves for every one that will be removed.

According to DFC officials, the toughest part of the alignment is the JNPT to Dahanu stretch, thanks to the technical difficulties as well as environment challenges, such as the SGNP and mangroves along the Dahanu coast.

With the clearances coming in, officials believe the work on the JNPT-Vaitarna stretch should begin by next year. After the monsoon this year, work on the Vaitarna-Vadodara stretch will begin.

ag Keyword: Bombay High Court , Dedicated Freight Corridor , Dahanu Taluka Environment Protection Authority , Environment Challenges
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Sunday, 8 March 2015

16:22

Japan International Cooperation Agency funding for crucial Rail Infrastructure Projects

FDI for crucial Rail Infrastructure Projects -DFCC

New Delhi: In an effort to fast-track completion of crucial rail infrastructure projects, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC) has tied up with Sojitz- L&T for the electrification of the 925 km-long Western Dedicated Freight Corridor track between Rewari and Vadodara.

Funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the largest single railway electrification work in India so far involving traction power supply, over head equipment (OHE) and other related work is estimated to cost Rs 2,582 crore.

“The work is likely to commence next month and will take almost four years for completion,” a senior DFC official, said, adding, “the most advanced technology will be utilised in the electrification work.”

The OHE are meant for Double Stack Container operation expected to be on this route.

The Western DFC is a 1,500km-long freight corridor linking national capital Delhi to Mumbai, the nation’s main commercial hub.

DFC is crucial for railways as it aims to decongest the existing line by taking the load of the majority of freight movement from the route.

DFCC, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), is engaged in planning, construction, operation and maintenance of the dedicated freight corridors. In the first phase, the two corridors, namely, Eastern Corridor from Ludhiana to Dankuni (1839 kms) and the Western Corridor from Dadri to Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) (1499 kms) are being constructed.

While the entire Western Corridor is being funded by JICA, the Eastern Corridor from Mughalsarai to Ludhiana is being funded by the World Bank.
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Thursday, 28 August 2014

13:26

PM takes brief over Bullet Train and DFCC projects from CRB

PM takes brief over Bullet Train and DFCC projects from CRB

New Delhi:  With India and Japan likely to ink a pact on bullet train, the chairman railway board (CRB) Arunendra Kumar has briefed the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on what the country should ensure in the agreement. The railways is seeking clear demarcation of responsibilities in building and operation of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai high speed train.

The CRB on Tuesday had made a presentation in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on the areas where Japan can support India. Sources said that the CRB briefed the PM on technicalities of the proposed bullet train project and the steps needed to be taken to execute the project. “India should ensure that there is a clear mention on who will be responsible for maintenance and operation of the bullet trains and coaches. Also, there should be a clear mention on where the bullet trains would be manufactured. Additionally, the railways is seeking that the project should be fully funded by the foreign agency,” sources said.
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