India plans to build a total of five dedicated freight corridors. Credit: Kevin Phillips from Pixabay.

Indian Railways has reportedly sought government approval to build three dedicated freight corridor networks with a total investment of Rs3tn ($43.53bn).

A government official told LiveMint that the move aims to facilitate freight movement in India. Additionally, the new corridors will decongest the network and assist to optimise passenger railway operations.

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The three corridors that Indian Railways aim to build are the 2,328km-long East-West Corridor between Kolkata and Mumbai, the 2,327km North-South Corridor between Delhi and Chennai, and the 1,114km East Coast Corridor from Kharagpur and Vijaywada. Preliminary engineering works and traffic studies have been completed.

Indian Railways plans to build a total of five corridors in the country.

Construction of the first two dedicated freight corridors, the 1,856km-long Eastern Freight Corridor and the 1,504km-long Western Freight Corridor, are already underway. Both these projects are estimated to cost Rs810bn ($11.74bn).

The railway department is building the two corridors through its Dedicated Freight Corridor Corp of India (DFCCIL) unit.

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It aims to complete around 60-70% of the work this fiscal year and have them completely operational by 2021.

Another government official told LiveMint that the new projects are expected to be funded through public-private partnerships. Indian Railways may also raise money from foreign institutions to carry out these projects.

Recently, the Government of India approved three railway projects with a combined value of Rs60.11bn ($872.5m). Two of these projects will be in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, while the third project will be in the eastern state of Assam.