Raghav Thakur

DEDICATED Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) has awarded a consortium led by GMR Infrastructure, India, a Rs 22.8bn ($US 430.3m) design-build contract for civil works and trackwork on a 221km section of the 1839km Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), which will connect Kolkata with Ludhiana.

THE World Bank has agreed to provide a $US 500m seed capital loan with a seven-year repayment moratorium to kick-start Indian Railways' (IR) station redevelopment programme, which will be financed through a combination of intergovernmental agreements and public-private partnerships.

TRIALS with variable-gauge Talgo coaches are due to begin on the Indian Railways (IR) broad-gauge network next month, with the first nine vehicles due to arrive at the port of Mumbai on April 21.

AFTER a two-year wait, Indian Railways (IR) finally launched its fastest inter-city service on April 5, when railways minister Mr Suresh Prabhu flagged off the Gatimaan Express on its maiden run from Delhi to Agra.

THE cost of constructing a 480km high-speed line linking Delhi with the holy city of Amritsar in the state of Punjab is estimated to be around Rs 1100bn ($US 20.8bn), according to a draft final report on the project by a consortium of Systra and Rites, which was submitted to the Indian Railways board last week.

A DILEMMA confronts Indian Railways (IR) as it goes into 2016. While it is heartening that the country's public transporter has initiated moves to take the rail travel experience to the next level through the infusion of private and foreign funds and modern technology, it is equally distressing to find that the basic performance parameters have been showing a downward trend.

INDIA will adopt Japanese Shinkansen technology for the country's first high-speed line under a memorandum of understanding signed on December 12 in Delhi in the presence of India's Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Mr Shinzo Abe.

ALSTOM has received a letter of award from India's Ministry of Railways to supply 800 double-unit Prima electric locomotives to Indian Railways (IR) in a deal worth Rs 230bn ($US 4.3bn).

GE Transportation is set to supply at least 1000 diesel locomotives to Indian Railways (IR) after GE Global Sourcing India was selected as preferred bidder for a Rs 220bn ($US 4.2bn) contract to establish a new joint venture production facility at Marhoura in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, which will build 700 3.36MW and 300 4.47MW units over the next decade.