The World Bank, which is close to a $1.8 billion loan deal with the Indian Railways for the eastern stretch of the dedicated freight corridor project, will start a global procurement process to selecting the contractors to initiate work on the corridor soon.
“The agency will come out with a global procurement notice to select contractors soon. The contractors will be identified within two months. It is expected to come out with requirements as well as guidelines for contractors,” an official from Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) said.
Dedicated freight corridor project envisages 1806-km Ludhiana-Dankuni section on the eastern segment and 1483-km Delhi-JNPT stretch on the Western Corridor. The total project cost is Rs 33,000 crore, except the newly extended portion (Sonnagar-Dankuni) of the eastern corridor.
The World Bank loan will be used to develop the 700 km stretch between Mughalsarai and Khurja on the eastern corridor.
Speaking on the modalities of the loan, the official said, “There are various products of the World Bank. The tenure of the loan as well as the rate of interest will be figured out by both World Bank and the department of economic affairs.”
The Western DFC is being funded substantially by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) under the Special Terms of Economic Partnership scheme. The first loan agreement for engineering services for phase-I (Rewari-Vadodara section of 920 kms) was signed last year. The main loan for phase-I is expected to be concluded by March 2010.
Meanwhile, DFCCIL is also looking for additional funding of $500-$600 million from World Bank, for the 200 km Khurja-Ludhiana section on the eastern corridor.
Also, the corporation has initiated work of the stretches not funded by the multilateral agencies.
“One contract is already progressing on the Virar-Surat stretch of the western corridor and the Mughalsarai-Sonnagar corridor on the eastern corridor,” said the official.
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