Railways cite poor progress by contractors, delays, on DFC after concerns raised by PMO

Following concerns raised by the Prime Minister’s Office over delays in the completion of the Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC), one of the largest rail infrastructure projects, Railways has cited “poor progress of work” by contractors and raised concerns over law and order in Uttar Pradesh and delays in construction by Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab governments.

According to officials aware of the development, railways has identified delays in both the Eastern and Western dedicated freight corridors and revised the completion target to 2022.

Railways’ project implementing arm the 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 by Uttar Pradesh (total 46 ROBs out of which only 3 have been completed, 30 in progress and work on 13 is yet to start). It has also pointed towards law and order issues in Meerut, Muzzafarnagar and Saharanpur District as an area of concern for the delay in the Eastern corridor. It also pointed slow progress in construction of ROBs in Haryana and Punjab.

In the Western Corridor, DFCCIL also mentioned slow progress by the Gujarat government 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, TPL-Aldesa a joint venture, Hitachi and Texmaco rail & engineering limited. Railways have citied “inadequate mobilization” as one 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 stake holders. Railways would listen to all. If contractors are unhappy we can’t be happy, idea is to take all with you. However, 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 are applicable for all. Development of these freight corridors will bring faster, dedicated network for Railways to usher in a transformational change in freight operations which will benefit the business and economy of the nation,” the spokesperson for the railway ministry said.

A review of the DFC is scheduled to be held on August 31 with the contractors. Railways will also hold a review with state government officials of UP, Bihar, Gujarat and Maharashtra on September 1.

When contacted by HT, a spokesperson for the GMR Group said: “GMR group has a history of delivering world class projects ahead of schedule. GMR Group constructed and operationalised Terminal 3 in a record time of 37 months besides delivering international projects in multiple countries ahead of schedule.”

“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. Group’s DFCC project stretches more than 400 Km and requires supplies of construction material from multiple sources, even from beyond the state. Owing to COVID, movement of skilled manpower & supervisory staff along with efficient supply of construction material has adversely affected the project progress. More than 40 of our engineers and supervisors were impacted with Covid and there has been one fatality as well. Various village bodies have objected to free movement of outside labor due to the fear of Covid spread. We are also balancing the need of local employment and requirement of trained labour which is taking some time…It is noteworthy that in such projects, earthwork and bridges completion takes more time while the track work, which is about 40% of total work is carried out very fast. Despite these challenges, the rate of progress of works on this project is better than other sections of DFCC, which was recognized recently & project was awarded “Certificate of Appreciation,” he added.

A spokesperson for Alstom said the company has completed 90% of the work awarded to it.

“As the only company to have fast-tracked the execution of electrification and signaling on key stretches of EDFC, the 200 km section of 102/103 (Bhadan to Khurja), completed by Alstom in 2019 has enabled successful run of over 1250 fully loaded freight trains. This also makes it the only electrified section of DFC in the country… In all, we have completed 90% of our scope of work on the EDFC project and are on track to complete rest of the work at the earliest. We expect that very soon, the entire 345 km freight corridor from Bhaupur-Khurja will be fully functional… Due to the scale and complexity of the project, there have been persistent ongoing challenges which impacted the speed of execution. While COVID-19 slowed down the progress, with Unlock 1.0, our teams restarted with an undeterred spirit following all necessary permissions and kept safety as a priority by adhering to protocols. Despite all the unprecedented challenges, Alstom has only accelerated the pace of the project. As on date, we have more than 900 employees on site, working round the clock to deliver as per timelines. We also accord highest priority to maintain safe conditions at site, absorbing all additional costs, considering the significance that we attach to this project,” the spokesperson said.

HT also reached out to the aforementioned firms for a response.

On June 18, HT had reported that DFCCIL has decided to terminate its contract with Chinese firm, Beijing National Railway Research & Design Institute of Signal & Communication, for work pertaining to signalling, citing delays.

“A review meeting was held on the DFFCIL and Shri Goyal directed the DFFCIL management team to necessary steps to speed up the project to compensate the loss of time due to lockdown during COVID. He also advised the officials to identify the most challenging area and come up with solution in a mission mode. He suggested that involving young fresh minds to suggest best solutions may be encouraged.”

“During the meeting, it was decided that strict monitoring of work of all contractors to be done. Resolution of all issues, including coordination with the states to be done on a Mission mode. Innovative mechanisms to constantly monitor the weekly progress of the project to be evolved,” DFCCIL said.

DFCCIL has been tasked with developing Indian Railways’ quadrilateral linking the four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Howrah, commonly known as the Golden Quadrilateral. .The overall cost is pegged at Rs 81,459 crore. In the first phase the organisation is constructing the Western DFC (1504 Route km) and Eastern DFC (1856 route km) spanning a total length of 3360 route km. These corridors were targeted to be completed in phases by December 2021. DFCCIL had completed a total of 500 kilometres till January this year.

“There are also issues around land acquisition, encroachments which are adversely impacting progress in certain stretches,” said Arindam Guha, Deloitte India’s partner.