Laying the tracks

A consistent effort to go ahead with execution is finally following long-time rhetoric over developing dedicated freight corridors in India. While plans for new corridors are being hatched, LOG.India takes a closer look at the old ones.

The idea of a dedicated freight corridor (DFC) for India was born in early April 2005. In October 2006, a special purpose vehicle, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL), was formed to oversee the project. While at the moment only two freight corridors (eastern and western) are sanctioned and work has started on them, there are four more legs to the corridor that are also being considered by the government.

Last month, former member of the Planning Commission, Anwarul Hoda, reportedly said that the commission was ready with a plan for four new dedicated freight corridors: Kolkata-Mumbai, Delhi-Chennai, Kharagpur-Vijayawada and Chennai-Goa. If accurate, this plan could be a timely solution. One of the key reasons stated for sanctioning western and eastern corridors is the high rate of saturation in the existing trunk routes of Mumbai-Delhi on the western corridor and Howrah-Delhi on the eastern corridor. The existing system on these routes is believed to be heavily
saturated, with capacity utilisation of 140 to 150 per cent. These new freight corridors are expected to provide long overdue relief and create additional capacity
for future use with a line capacity on the designated routes for another 25 to 30 years.

Industrial Corridor
A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the JapaneseMinistry of Trade and Industry in December 2006 for the development of an industrial corridor along the freight corridor between Delhi and Mumbai. An inter-ministerial group was set up to work out the project outline and an Indo-Japanese taskforce was set up to guide the process. The taskforce, after several meetings, came up with a concept paper for the development of an area of 150 kilometres on either side of the freight corridor.

In August 2007, the Government of India gave its ‘in-principle’ approval to the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project outline. The Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Limited (DMICDC) was incorporated on January 7, 2008. The DMICDC, with the help of state governments and private participants, is responsible for developing the industrial corridor with sufficient connecting infrastructure and industrial hubs to facilitate trade and cargo movement to ports and the hinterland. To enable this, DMIC would also include the development of the required feeder rail and road connectivity to the hinterland markets and select ports along the west coast.

Several industrial belts in the areas bordering the DFC are already expected
to benefit, including the general manufacturing region of Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad; Gurgaon, Faridabad and Sonepat, which specialises in automobiles, electronics and handloom goods; Jaipur, Alwar, Kota, Bhilwara and Jodhpur, which produce marble, leather and textiles; Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Anand, Bharuch and
Surat, which specialises in engineering, chemicals, gems and jewellery; and Mumbai, Pune and Nashik, which specialises in automobiles and automobile
components, pharmaceuticals and aluminium.

Ground reality
The freight corridor is currently under execution mode, with the tedious process of land acquisition being implemented under a central government act. The corporation is being assisted by state government officials who have nominated their officers specifically for this activity. This project passes through 52 districts and in every district a land acquisition officer has been appointed.

The land acquisition process is divided into three stages – initial land plans, announcement and compensation. Currently,this process is in different stages in different areas. Stage one has been completed for 80 per cent of land to be acquired and about 40 to 50 per cent of required land is expected to be acquired by March 2010. Currently, contracts are being awarded with the Indian Railway’s available equity. A disclosure by DFCCIL shows that over INR1,600 crores (more than US$329 million) worth of tenders, each valued at over INR1 crore (approximately US$205,445) were awarded as of April 20, 2009. Hyderabad-based Soma Enterprises has won the contract to design and construct 54 important and major bridges for the western freight corridor between Vaitarna and Utran on the Vasai Bharuch section in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, worth INR605.15 crore (US$124 million).

A joint venture between B.S.C and C&C has been awarded a tender worth INR781.06 crore (US$161 million) for the design and construction of formation including blanketing and major bridges on the Mughalsarai-Sone Nagar section of the eastern corridor in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Another tender worth INR133.86 crore (US$28 million) for general consultancy services for works such as signalling and telecommunications concerning the double-line electrified railway track for the Bhaupur-Mandrak stretch of the Kanpur-Khurja section of the eastern freight corridor was won by Parsons Brinckerhoff India.

Funding
Complete funding for both the western and eastern corridors is yet to be secured. The DFCCIL is negotiating with multilateral funding agencies for the same. It is in talks with the Japanese Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) for funding the Rewari to Makarpura stretch near Vadodara on the western corridor, and is negotiating with the World Bank for funding from Mugalsarai to Khurja along the eastern corridor. In addition, funding is being sought for tracks from Khurja to Ludhiana.

These negotiations are expected to bear fruit by year-end or at the latest by January or February 2010. While the development of these dedicated freight corridors will definitely decongest critical areas, the timelines need to be strictly adhered to, and a continuous evaluation of business plans based on reasonable freight forecasts is a must to ensure that India’s first dedicated freight corridors don’t leave a sour aftertaste.

DFCCIL has identified several locations (see blue dots on map) on the western dedicated freight corridor to act as nodes for aggregation of traffic. The plan includes all facilities required for this within terminals and logistics parks being built around these nodes. The corridor is expected to run long-haul freight trains that are about twice the size of present trains. The maximum length of these trains as currently planned is 1,500 metres on loop lines, which can accommodate two trains together. The total length of the western and eastern freight corridors is 2,762 kilometres, with 1,483 kilometres and 1,279 kilometres, respectively. This combined with heavier axle load, track loading density and speed on gentler grades is expected to significantly boost container movement.