World Bank approves $650 mn in third phase of loans for EDFC
Through the third phase, the World Bank will help build 401km in the Ludhiana-Khurja section in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab in the 1,840km EDFC
New Delhi: The World Bank on Wednesday approved $650 million in the third phase of loans for the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC), a proposed railway connecting the northern and eastern parts of India for carriage of goods.
Under its first two phases, the World Bank had sanctioned $975 million and $1.1 billion, respectively. The loans have a maturity period of 22 years with a 7-year grace period.
Through the third phase, World Bank will help build 401km in the Ludhiana-Khurja section in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab in the 1,840km EDFC running between Ludhiana and Kolkata.
“The World Bank is supporting the EDFC as a series of projects in which the three sections with a total route length of 1,146 km will be delivered sequentially, but with considerable overlap in their construction schedules. It will also help develop the institutional capacity of the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL) to build and maintain the DFC infrastructure network," the multilateral lending institution said in a statement.
The EDFC is part of India’s first Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) initiative built on two main routes of the western and the eastern corridors. These corridors are expected to help India increase the railways’ transportation capacity by building high-capacity, higher-speed dedicated freight corridors along the Golden Quadrilateral highway network connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
The Golden Quadrilateral accounts for only 16% of the railway network’s route length, but carries more than 60% of India’s total rail freight.
The government is also planning to build seven integrated manufacturing clusters using EDFC as the backbone. These clusters will be set up with an investment of about $1 billion on either side of EDFC.
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