Reports indicate that the government may increase budgetary allocation for the two dedicated freight corridor projects in the forthcoming railway budget for 2013-14.

According to media reports, the railways may get around Rs 8,000-10,000 crore more in government support from last year’s Rs 24,000 crore, though it had sought as much as Rs 45,000 crore.

It is learnt that over 80 per cent of the land acquisition for both the western and eastern corridors is completed. Eighty per cent of the entire alignment of the eastern corridor is parallel to the existing track.

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC) has begun work on one stretch of the eastern corridor. DFCC recently awarded a Rs 3,300-crore contract to Tata-Aldesa for a 343-km double-track between Kanpur and Khurja in the same corridor.

The Indian Railways (IR) is already working on a 66-km stretch of the New Karwandiya-Durgawati section of the Sonnagar-Mughalsarai stretch (122 km) of the eastern corridor. It is to be commissioned by December, reports indicate.

The World Bank approved $975 million (Rs 5,270 crore) for the first phase of DFCC , a design-build contract with the work to be done within four years.