The World Bank has approved the $650 million debt funding for a part of the eastern arm of the ambitious Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project. This is the third tranche of the World Bank loan EDFC 3, which got approval for the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) of 1,840 km long from Ludhiana to Kolkata, and will help build the 401 Km Ludhiana-Khurja section spanning Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab. The Project will help increase the capacity of these freight lines by raising the axle-load limit from 22.9 to 25 tons and enable speeds of up to 100 km per hour.
The World Bank is supporting the EDFC as a series of projects in which three sections with a total route length of 1,146 km will be implemented. The latest tranche of loan, which comes with a 22-year maturity period, is expected to help in faster and more efficient movement of raw materials and finished goods between the northern and eastern regions, as the eastern and western arms of the DFC project are expected to help India increase the railways' transportation capacity by building high-capacity and high-speed dedicated freight corridors along the Golden Quadrilateral.
The World Bank board had in 2011 approved the first tranche of the loan of $975 million for the 343 Km Khurja-Kanpur section (EDFC1) already under implementation, while in April 2014 it approved the second tranche of the loan of $1.1 billion for EDFC2 which covers 402 km from Kanpur to Mughal Sarai. Under EDFC2, civil works contract for around $800 million have been awarded and contracts worth $240 million for establishing rail systems are under procurement.
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