Rs 22,000 cr corridor for Western, Eastern routes

The government on Friday proposed to construct a dedicated multi-modal high axle load freight corridor with computerised control on Western and Eastern routes at an estimated cost of Rs 22,000 crore (Rs 220 billion).

Announcing this while presenting the Rail Budget in Lok Sabha, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said in the first phase of the Eastern Corridor project, a separate freight corridor would be built from Ludhiana to Sonnagar via Ambala, Saharanpur, Khurja and Allahabad.

The primary feeder routes from Sonnagar to Durgapur via Gomoh, Sonnagar to Tatanagar via Garhwa Road and Barkakana to Bokaro via Chandrapura will be upgraded in order to carry heavier trains of coal and steel traffic, he said, adding it will also be extended up to ports in West Bengal as per traffic needs.

The Railway Budget 2006-07

The Western Corridor will start from Jawaharlal Nehru Port and routed via Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Palanpur, Jaipur and Rewari to Tughlakabad and Dadri, Prasad said.

Both the corridors would be joined by a link between Dadri and Khurja, he said adding the feeder routes of the Western Corridor connecting ports of Gujarat would be upgraded.  These projects would be inaugurated soon by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.