Railways looks to WB loan for eastern freight corridor

Having initiated negotiations with the World Bank, Railways officials said the response of the World Bank was “enthusiastic” and their officials were likely to appraise the project in 9-10 months before taking a final call on sanctioning a loan. “By March 2009, we’ll know whether a World Bank loan is coming. However, we are hopeful about securing the loan given the fact that the Eastern DFC is a financially viable project and the World Bank appears enthusiastic about associating itself with it,” said a senior railway official.

The Japanese Government, as earlier reported by The Indian Express, is learnt to have conveyed its decision to the Railways that it was interested in granting a loan to fund only the Western DFC between Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai and Tughlakabad/ Dadri near Delhi. This appears to have jeopardised the Railways’ plans, forcing them to explore other sources to secure funding.

The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited, the SPV formed to execute the project, has invited expression of interests for an engineer, procure and construct (EPC) contract worth Rs 3,000 crore for designing, engineering, procuring, constructing and commissioning double track electrified railway lines with signalling and telecommunication system and other related infrastructure for operation of freight trains on turnkey basis for the 300-km-long Bhaupur-Mandrak stretch on the Kanpur-Khurja Section of the Eastern DFC. “We are trying to begin work on this stretch by this November,” an official said.