Global engineering firms including Harsco of United States, EFT of France and the Spanish Assignia are among companies vying for contracts worth Rs 3,000 crore for design and construction of the 343-kilometre Khurja-Kanpur stretch of the eastern wing of the freight corridor .
"Technical bids for the Khurja-Kanpur section were opened on Friday,"RK Gupta, managing director, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL) told HT. "Final work awards are likely to take place by August·"
US-based Harsco, which has firmed up joint ventures (JV) with seven Indian subsidiaries, is making in a big pitch for the Indian market. Meanwhile, the French EFT and the Russian STS have firmed up JVs with Kalinidi and KEC — both Gurgaon-based firms.
The bid document provides freedom to contractors to work on “alternative technologies”. Such technologies will be evaluated and cleared by the Lucknow-based Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) and the Indian Institute of Technology at Delhi.
{{/usCountry}}The bid document provides freedom to contractors to work on “alternative technologies”. Such technologies will be evaluated and cleared by the Lucknow-based Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) and the Indian Institute of Technology at Delhi.
{{/usCountry}}Cost of this ambitious project has rapidly climbed in past years: from Rs 2,800 crores in 2007 to Rs 82, 000 crores in 2009 to Rs 95, 000 crores at present. The World Bank, which is funding the Eastern Corridor, has placed a credit cap of $2.7 billion, while the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has sanctioned a loan amount of 667 billion yen.
The dedicated freight corridors scheme envisages the construction of 33,000 kilometer long tracks along India’s eastern and western flanks.