Coal news and updates

New three DFCs to cost Rs 1.20 lakh crore each

The construction cost of each of the newly-announced 3 Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) would be around Rs 1.20 lakh crore. Disclosing this to ICMW, a top official from the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCIL) said RITES has already submitted its primary survey report and the funding ties for newly-announced DFCs will be finalised within a couple of months.    

In the latest Rail Budget, 3 new DFCs – namely, the North-South Corridor connecting Delhi to Chennai, East-West Corridor connecting Kharagpur to Mumbai and East Coast Corridor connecting Kharagpur to Vijayawada, have been proposed.

Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu has promised to take up these three projects on a high priority basis to ensure structuring, awarding and implementation in a time-bound manner through innovative financing mechanisms, including public-private partnership (PPP).

Earlier, Railways had two DFCs, namely the 1500-km Western Corridor connecting Mumbai to Delhi and 1,800-km long Eastern Corridor connecting Ludhiana to Kolkata. According to Railways, 90% of land acquisition, 65% of civil construction and 55% of electrification of the Western Corridor has been completed and it is expected to be fully operational by June 2018-October 2019. Funds worth $8 billion for the Western Corridor have been tied up with the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA).

On the other hand, 75% of land acquisition of the $8-billion Eastern Corridor has been completed along with 65% of civil construction and 30% of electrification.

However, the 538-km long Sonnagar-Dankuni PPP stretch in this corridor is getting delayed due to problems related to land acquisition.

The Eastern Corridor is expected to be operational between December 2017-December 2019, excluding the PPP stretch.