GMR led consortium gets the nod for Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor railway project

 The Dollar Business Bureau A consortium led by GMR Infrastructure Limited has been issued Letters of Award for construction of 417 Km long Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor railway project at a cost of Rs 5,080 crore on EPC (engineering procurement contract) basis. The project is divided into 2 packages - Package 201 from Mughalsarai to Karchana (near Allahabad) for 180 km and package 202 from Karchana to Bhaupur (near Kanpur) for 237 Km in the State of Uttar Pradesh. The project which is funded by World Bank involves Design and Construction of Civil, Structures and Track Works for Double Line Railway on Design Build Lump Sum Basis and shall be completed in 45 months. Earlier in November 2014, GMR led Consortium emerged lowest amongst five other bidders for the project through and international competitive bidding process. DFCCIL (The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited) is a special Purpose Vehicle set up under the Ministry of Railways to undertake construction, maintenance and operation of the Dedicated Freight Corridors in the Country. The Eastern and Western rail freight corridor projects are expected to be game changers in the country by creating much required rail transportation capacity. The eastern corridor covers a length of approximately 1840 Kms. GMR group is not required to provide any equity for the project since it is to be implemented on an EPC basis. The project has to be completed in 45 months after the award. GMR Infrastructure, which has interests in airports, highways and urban infrastructure, is implementing two railway projects for Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. GMR Infrastructure also has seven operational road assets out of which four are annuity based (284 kms) and three are BOT (447 kms) with a residual concession period of 5-20 years (min – max) contributing gross revenue of Rs 738 crore.  

This article was published on April 6, 2015.