The World Bank has refused to fund four new dedicated freight corridors of the railway ministry, which are currently in preliminary stages. On being approached by the ministry, WB said that it is a huge amount for them to fund.

“As the government may approve plan to lay four new dedicated rail freight corridors in 2011, the World Bank has refused to fund such huge amount for the projects,” R K Sinha, director finance of the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation Ltd said on Wednesday.

Sinha also said that the government is still conducting the preliminary feasibility studies for the project and may approve it only in 2011. 

But the government is also looking for new sources of funding for the projects. “Options are equity, private investments, debt financing, and of course if there are other international agencies like Asian Development Bank (ADB) or other bilateral agencies may come,” Sinha added.

The four new dedicated freight corridors will connect western India to southern India, eastern India to southern India, northern India to southern India and western India to eastern India.

The 20,000 km double track four new dedicated freight corridors are likely to ease load from the normal rail traffic.

The government is currently executing two dedicated corridors – the Western Corridor (Jawaharlal Nehru Port, near Mumbai to Dadri) and Eastern Corridor (Howrah to Ludhiana) with funding from multilateral agencies.

The western corridor, expected to carry mainly container traffic, will be developed with the help of the Japanese agency, Japanese International Corporation Agency (JICA).

The World Bank is expected to finance the eastern corridor which will carry more heavy mineral traffic, food grains and less container traffic.

“An appraisal mission of 3 to 3.5 billion may come up from the World Bank by the end of this year,” Sinha commented.

The dedicated freight corridor (DFC) is a project for laying new railway lines exclusively for carrying freight, isolated from normal railways traffic and passenger trains.