Railways cites delays by states, contractors on dedicated freight corridors
An official said the railways has identified delays in both the eastern and western dedicated freight corridors and revised the deadline for completing them to 2022 from 2021.
Following concerns raised by the Prime Minister’s Office over delays in the completion of dedicated freight corridors (DFCs), one of the largest rail infrastructure projects, the Indian Railways has cited “poor progress of work” by contractors and raised concerns over law and order and delays in construction by some states, according to people aware of the developments.
An official said the railways has identified delays in both the eastern and western dedicated freight corridors and revised the deadline for completing them to 2022 from 2021.
The railways’ project implementing arm, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL), in an internal report reviewed by HT, has cited slow progress of road over bridge (ROB) approaches. It has also pointed towards law and order issues in some districts as an area of concern for the delay in the eastern corridor.
In the western corridor, DFCCIL also mentioned slow progress citing “slow acquisition of land for approaches.”
DFCCIL, in its observation, identified delays by the following contractors: GMR group, Alstom, Beijing National Railway Research & Design Institute of Signal & Communication, Tata projects, Hitachi and Texmaco rail & engineering limited. The railways citied “inadequate mobilization” as of the reasons for delays, followed by “slow pace of work” by the contractors and cash flow issues.
“The project is monitored on a weekly basis now. Another meeting is scheduled to be chaired by MR Next Monday with all stakeholders. Railways would listen to all. If contractors are unhappy, we can’t be happy; idea is to take all with you. However, the railways will not tolerate any slippages in timelines of the contracted works. Action would be taken against any entity causing delay in the project of such importance. This strict monitoring is for all the working parties involved including entities in railways. Rules of monitoring is applicable for all,” a spokesperson for the railway ministry said.
A spokesperson for the GMR Group said: “Despite the adverse effect of Covid, which has impacted availability of manpower, raw material and other resources, due to support from government agencies, we have overcome it to large extent over the last few month.”
A spokesperson for Alstom said the company has completed 90% of the work awarded to it.
HT’s requests for comments from other firms mentioned above remained unanswered as of press time.
On June 18, HT reported that DFCCIL decided to terminate its contract with the Chinese firm Beijing National Railway Research & Design Institute of Signal & Communication for work pertaining to signalling, citing delays.
A review of the DFC is scheduled to be held on August 31 with the contractors. The railways will also hold a review with state government officials of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Maharashtra on September 1.
“A review meeting was held on the DFFCIL and Shri (Piyush) Goyal directed the DFFCIL management team to take necessary steps to speed up the project to compensate the loss of time due to lockdown during Covid-19,” DFCCIL said.
Arindam Guha, Deloitte India’s partner, said: “There are also issues around land acquisition and encroachments which are adversely impacting progress in certain stretches.”
