Tata Projects Ltd., the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor, along with its partner Aldesa of Spain, has started work on a section of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project being implemented by the Indian Railways for faster evacuation of freight.
Tata Projects has been awarded the contract to construct a 337 km double track line and 14 km of single track line between Bhaupur and Khurja in Uttar Pradesh.
This section, involving an investment of Rs.3,300 crore, would be completed in four years.
This World Bank-funded project was won by the Tata Projects-Aldesa consortium, and this is the first major contract awarded for this ambitious project.
“Tata Projects will leverage its execution expertise and Aldesa will provide its technical expertise of mechanical track laying for high speed trains to create a world class freight corridor that will significantly reduce goods transit time and help grow the economy,” Tata Projects said.
“This project is an important milestone towards modernisation of India’s railways freight transportation,and, we, at Tata Projects, look forward to pioneer new initiatives that contribute to the development of India and accelerated growth,” said Vinayak Deshpande, Managing Director, Tata Projects.
The DFC is an ambitious programme which involves construction of two corridors which are the Eastern Corridor from Ludhiana to Dankuni covering a length of 1,839 km and the Western Corridor from Dadri to Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Mumbai, covering 1,499 km for promoting a seamless movement of rail freight traffic.
The DFC has been designed for 32.5-tonne axle load as compared to the current carriage tracks of 22.5 tonne axle load which is on a par with the standards in America, Russia, and China.
The dedicated freight network is a key infrastructure project for Indian railways as it will segregate the passenger network from freight network.
The corridor will also increase the speed of freight trains up to 100 km per hour.
