The FINANCIAL — The Government of India and the World Bank signed a $1.1 billion agreement towards the second loan for the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (a freight-only rail line) that will help faster and more efficient movement of raw materials and finished goods between the north and eastern parts of India. The project was approved by the World Bank Board on April 22, 2014, according to the World Bank Group.
The loan agreement for the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor Project was signed by Tarun Bajaj, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Government of India; M.K. Mittal, Director, Finance, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation(DFCCIL) on behalf of DFCCIL; and Onno Ruhl, World Bank Country Director in India, on behalf of World Bank. Adesh Sharma, Managing Director, DFCCIL and Girish Pillai, Advisor (Infra), Ministry of Railways, were also present on this occasion.
The Eastern Corridor is 1,839 km long and extends from Ludhiana to Kolkata. The World Bank is supporting the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) as a series of projects in which the three sections with a total route length of 1,133 km will be delivered sequentially, but with considerable overlap in their construction schedules. EDFC 2 will build the 393 km Kanpur-Mughal Sarai section in Uttar Pradesh. The Project will help increase the capacity of these freight-only lines by raising the axle-load limit from 22.9 to 25 tons and enable speeds of up to 100 km/hr. It will also help develop the institutional capacity of the DFCCIL to build and maintain the DFC infrastructure network, according to the World Bank Group.
“The EDFC will ease congestions choking the railway system and reduce travel-time for passenger trains plying on this arterial Ludhiana-Delhi-Mughal Sarai railway route. The corridor will add additional rail transport capacity, improve service quality and create higher freight capacity,” said Tarun Bajaj, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.
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