Tokyo-based Sojitz Corporation and India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T) have been awarded a $423 million contract from Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India for the electrification works in a section of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (Western DFC).
The 1,500km-long Western DFC connects the country’s capital city Delhi to Mumbai, its industrial hub.
This project on its 915km-long between Rewari, Haryana, in northern India and Vadodara, Gujarat, in the west, marks the largest single railway electrification project in the country.
Under this project, Sojitz and L&T will construct 16 traction substations and install overhead electric wires. Work is expected to start this year.
The project will use 40% Japanese technologies, since the Western DFC has been developed under a Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan with Special Terms for Economic Partnership (STEP) conditions that demands the purchase of Japanese products, Sojitz said.
As part of this, Japanese companies will receive orders for substation equipment, electric wires and other equipment for railway electrification.
In 2013, Sojitz and L&T received a contract for the civil and track works for a 626km-long section of Western DFC.
Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India is a public company under India’s Ministry of Railways established to build, maintain and operate dedicated freight railways in the country.
(Sojitz)
