Even as the Railways’ most ambitious Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) waits to take off, the Railway Ministry has come out with revised estimates for both Western and Eastern DFCs. Significantly, the latest estimates have put the total cost of the project at Rs 43,293 crore, a good Rs 15,112 crore more than what was originally projected.

Adding the interest during construction, and escalation of the project costs, the Ministry has now said that the Western DFC between Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai to Tughlakabad/Dadri near Delhi will cost Rs 23,680 crore and the Eastern DFC from Ludhiana to Sonnagar and upto Dankuni in West Bengal will cost Rs 19,613 crore. Earlier estimates had pegged the cost of the Western DFC at Rs16,592 crore and the cost of Eastern DFC at Rs 11,589 crore.

Railway Board Chairman K C Jena said that the Japanese Government had given Railways a “letter of comfort” pledging the Official Development Assistance (ODA) for the Western DFC. He added that the trials to ascertain viability of running double stack containers under overhead electrical lines was scheduled to begin in May and would be completed by June. This trial, it is pertinent to note, is being conducted since the Japanese are keen that Indian Railways use electric traction on the Western DFC route.