Indian Railways Turns Attention To The East Coast: Will Build 1,100 Km Long Freight Corridor Costing Rs 44,000 crore

Indian Railways is planning to build an 1100 Km green-field freight corridor on the East Coast with an estimated budget of Rs. 44,000 crore. The freight corridor will be connecting Kharagpur with Vijayawada, The Construction Week Online has reported.

The corridor aims at carrying 200 mt of freight per annum. It is likely to be announced in the 2019-20 budget. It will be constructed by Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC).

The corridor's construction will begin after the DFCC finishes the eastern and western corridor which are part of the mega project to connect the mainland with ports on both the eastern and the western coasts of India.

Anurag Sachan, managing director at DFCC said, “There is very heavy traffic on this route. The work on the proposal is currently going on, We will be proposing funding from multilateral agencies along with some equity from Indian railways for the project.” The cost of the first phase of the project is estimated to be Rs 81,000 crore.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is fully funding the construction of the western corridor while the eastern corridor is being partially funded by the World Bank. Modi government has given special impetus on infrastructure development and railways throughout its tenure.