WB has Provided Loan to Indian Railway Freight Corridor

The World Bank has provided a $975m loan to Indian Railways to build the eastern-dedicated freight corridor, a freight-only rail line that will help faster movement of raw materials and finished goods between the northern and eastern parts of India.

The corridor will also allow Indian Railways to free up capacity and better serve the large passenger market in this densely populated region.
The World Bank fund will cover a route length of 1,130km out of a total corridor length of 1,839km. The project is planned to be implemented in three phases.
The project will help increase the capacity of these freight-only lines by raising the axle-load limit from 22.9t to 25.0t and allowing the goods trains to run at a speed of 100km/h.
The freight corridor is part of India’s first Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) initiative and is being built on two main routes – the western and the eastern Corridors.
Currently, these routes account for 16% of India’s railway network but carry more than 60% of its total rail freight. The new dedicated freight corridors will ease congestion on the routes as well as reduce travel time for passenger trains.