Khurja-Kanpur DFC work may start by 2011

Officials from the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) expect work on the 342 kms Khurja- Kanpur rail stretch to start from March 2011.

RK Sinha, director of finance, DFCCIL said, “The final contract for this particular stretch (Khurja- Kanpur) would be awarded by March 2011 and work will start thereafter.”

The pre-qualification bids for the project have been received, and DFCCIL, which is a special purpose vehicle under the Ministry of Railways, is likely to announce the final list of pre-qualified bidders in a month or two. Thereafter, the final bids for the project would be called for.

The request for qualification (RFQ) process has received a good response from potential bidders. “Around 85 individual companies in the form of 27 consortiums have responded to the RFQ bids,” Sinha said.

The World Bank (WB) is funding around 1,133 km stretch of the 1,839 km long eastern corridor and the remaining would be funded by the Asian Development Bank. The World Bank-funded 1,113 km stretch on the eastern corridor includes Khurja- Kanpur (342 kms), Khurja- Ludhiana (400 kms), Kanpur- Mughalsarai (391 kms).

The WB’s appraisal report is also likely to be completed in the next six to eight weeks. This report would be then submitted to WB’s Washington office. This would be the final appraisal report inclusive of all phases of the project, but the actual dispersal of funds would happen in phases. WB’s total assistance is expected to be around `12,000 crore.

Sinha is also positive that the land for the Khurja- Kanpur stretch would be in place before March 2011. “We expect at least 80% of the land would be acquired for this stretch before the work begins in March 2011,” Sinha said. However, land acquisition continues to remain an issue for the entire project. “Land acquisition would be a major concern that will affect the dedicated freight corridor project,” said Kapil Yadav, an analyst from Dolat Capital Market Pvt Ltd.

DFCCIL continues to lag behind with the land acquisition process. According to sources, it has managed to acquire only about 555 hectares of land of the total 11,179 hectares required for the `50,000 crore worth project. According to sources close to the management, DFCCIL would be concentrating on the civil works, land acquisition process and procedural work on various stretches in the next six months.