Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday asked railway officials to explore the possibility of offering incentives to contractors engaged in the Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) project, if they complete the works before the stipulated time frames.
The Minister, who reviewed the progress of the DFC, also asked the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation India Limited (DFCCIL),agency which is executing the freight corridors, to set up a dashboard for real time 'Km by Km' project monitoring and follow up action by railway officials so that issues and solutions may be resolved on an urgent basis.
Provision of dashboard will help in resolution of all contract implementation matters on an urgent basis and would also act as Institutional mechanism for resolving contract related issues through the dashboard, the Minister said.
In the meeting, which was attended by top railway officials, Goyal also asked DFFCIL management team and the contractors to take all possible steps to speed up the pace of works on all the sections of the Western and Eastern freight corridors.
The Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) is one of the largest rail infrastructure projects a (total length of 3360 route km) undertaken by the Government of India with the investment of Rs 81,459 crores.
While the original deadline for completion of these DFCs was December 2021, the Railways recently said it has extended it to June 2022 due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The DFC is the exclusive corridor for transportation of goods, and once constructed will decongest the railways' network by moving 70% of goods train to these two corridors.
As of July, 56% of Western Dedicated Freight Corridor and 60 % of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor was completed.
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