$9-billion revolving fund for Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor

The $90-billion Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) connecting the political capital of India and business capital Mumbai through a mega infrastructure spread over 1,483 km, is all set to take off with a $9-billion revolving fund.

India's commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma who met Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan in Tokyo on Tuesday, proposed the establishment of a revolving fund of $9 billion, with matching contribution from India and Japan, to kick-start the process of implementing the project.

The Japanese prime minister is said to have agreed to enhance the financial contribution of Japan and was receptive to the suggestion.

The DMIC project, supported by the Delhi Mumbai Rail Corridor (DMRC) project and the dedicated freight corridor project, being implemented by the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd, will see investments of over $100 billion and is seen as a flagship initiative of Indo-Japan partnership.

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL), a special purpose vehicle created by the ministry of railways is implementing the dedicated freight corridor projects.

During the Budget speech 2007-08, the then finance minister P Chidambaram had stated that the ministry of railways would conduct pre-feasibility studies for construction of high-speed passenger corridors for running high speed trains at speeds of 300 to 350 km per hour.

It had been proposed that one each such high-speed passenger corridor would be set up in the northern, western, southern and eastern regions of the country.

The ministry of railways has also conducted financial and economic analysis for Mumbai-Ahmedabad and Delhi-Amritsar high-speed rail corridors.

Sharma urged greater Japanese investments in areas of core infrastructure and capital goods, including power generation equipment where Japanese companies have a technological edge.

Sharma said the India viewed the partnership with Japan as a 'strategic engagement' in the region and in the global context. This would be central to the vision of Asian integration articulated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said.

Sharma, who is accompanied by a high level official delegation, including the commerce secretary and a CEO's delegation led by CII president Hari Bharatia, will also be interacting with top Japanese CEOs to seek Japanese investments in areas of priority in India.

Prime minister Kan also underscored the significance of Indo-Japanese technology collaboration for research and innovation. He called for a partnership in development of India's infrastructure, specifically referring to Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor project.

New initiatives in the freight sector, including construction of dedicated freight corridors, have helped the Railways carry an additional 238 million tonnes of freight and earn more than Rs14,000 crore in additional freight revenue, he said.

The Railways will construct dedicated freight corridors from Delhi to Mumbai and from Ludhiana to Kolkata in the second phase and follow it up with similar projects in other parts of the country as well, which would result in a new revolution in rail freight transportation, he added.