As many as 10 companies including Siemens and Hitachi have expressed interest in the signalling and telecommunication project on the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor being implemented by the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL).
Fresh auctions were conducted for the project after DFCCIL terminated Rs 471 crore contract given earlier to a Chinese company, China Railway Signal and Communication, in July 2020. The contract was cancelled on the grounds of poor progress.
The project involves installation of signalling systems in 417 km railway line in Kanpur-Deen Dayal Upadhyay section in Uttar Pradesh.
The Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) comprising the Eastern and Western corridors is one of the largest rail infrastructure projects being undertaken by the government at an overall cost of Rs 81,459 crore.
The 10 companies that have expressed interest in completing balance work of Kanpur-Deen Dayal Upadhyay section are L&T, RCIL, Siemens, Kyoson, MRT Signal, Hitachi Rail STS, Kalpataru, Texmaco and KEC.
The last date for submission of bids is 14 September 2020. The scope of the work involves designing, supplying, constructing, testing and commissioning the signalling, telecommunications and associated works in Kanpur-Deen Dayal Upadhyay section which is a part of the Eastern Corridor.
The Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor is 1,840 km long and extends from Ludhiana, Punjab to Kolkata, West Bengal. The China Railway Signal and Communication had completed only 20 percent of the work in the four years since the contract was awarded in 2016 and the project was to be completed by December 2020.