India signs guarantee for $650 mn IBRD loan for Dedicated Freight Corridor
22 Oct 2016
The Government of India on Friday signed a guarantee agreement for World Bank (IBRD) lending of $650 million to the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL).
The loan will be used for the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor-III (EDFC-III) project. Joint secretary in the finance ministry's Department of Economic Affairs Raj Kumar and the World bank's acting country director in India Hisham Abdo signed the agreement in the capital on Friday.
The EDFC-III project will augment rail transport capacity, improve service quality and enhance freight carriage throughput on the 401 km Ludhiana-Khurja section of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor; and develop institutional capacity of DFCCIL to build, maintain and operate the entire DFC network.
This project is in a continuation of Phase-I and II of the EDFC projects being implemented by the DFCCIL, with World Bank loan of $975 million and $1,100 million, respectively, on the Dadri-Khurja-Kanpur; and Kanpur-Mughal Sarai stretches of the Eastern Rail Corridor (Ludhiana-Delhi-Kolkata).
The project will directly benefit the power and heavy manufacturing industries of Northern and Eastern India, which rely on railway network for transportation of their material inputs and also for the distribution of bulk processed and semi-processed commodities and consumer goods.
Railway passengers will also be benefitted through decongestion of the existing passenger lines.