As many as 24 global companies, in a JV with Indian construction companies, have evinced interest in the implementation of Phase-II of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor project for laying a 393 km long rail route from Kanpur to Mughalsarai in Uttar Pradesh.

The firms include TATA Projects, Gammon India, Essar Infrastructure, Punj Llyod, AFCONS, IVRCL, GMR Infrastructure, SOMA Enterprises, KEC International, Gyatri Projects, Megha Engineering, ERA Infrastructure, and BSCPL among others. The companies are likely to be shortlisted for the project after the approval from World Bank within 45 days.

DFCCIL, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), is implementing the dedicated freight corridors in a phased manner. In phase-I, the two corridors - Eastern Corridor from Ludhiana to Dankuni (1,839 km) and the Western Corridor from Dadri to Jawaharlal Nehru Port (1,499 km) are being constructed.

The entire Western Corridor is being funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), while the Eastern Corridor from Mughalsarai to Ludhiana is being funded by the World Bank.

World Bank has agreed in principle to part-finance the Eastern Corridor project from Mughalsarai to Ludhiana. The total in-principle loan commitment is USD 2.725 billion (approx 1643.9 crore), out of which the loan for phase-I of USD 975 million (approx Rs 5882.17 crore) was sanctioned in May 2011, and the loan agreement was signed in October 2011. The loan for the phase-II is expected to be of the order of USD 1,200 million (approx Rs 7239.6 crore).

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