CAG slams dedicated freight corridor delays

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has slammed the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) for delays on the Western and Eastern dedicated freight corridors (DFCs) on account of slow pace in handing over the land to contractors, utility shifting, design delays and delays in the overhead equipment works, among others, leading to cost escalation.

According to the Compliance Audit on Union Government (Railway) for the year ended March 2020, CAG has stated that in the sections reviewed by the body, DFCCIL had to incur ₹2,233.81 crore till March 2021 towards price escalation. “DFCCIL further anticipated future liability of ₹2,671.29 crore in this regard. The primary reasons for granting extension of time inter-alia include the delay in handing over of land to the contractors, delay in finalization of design, delay in utility shifting, delay in achieving milestones by the interface contractors,” CAG stated in its report tabled in the Parliament on Wednesday.

Audit test checked contracting procedures, execution and other related issues pertaining to four sections (Rewari-Iqbalgarh and Vaitarna-JNPT sections of WDFC and Khurja-Bhaupur and Bhaupur-Deen Dayal Upadhayaya sections of EDFC) of the project. “All the 16 major contracts financed by JICA and World Bank pertaining to these four sections were reviewed,” CAG said in the report.

The EDFC is an exclusive freight route spanning 1,875 km, which will connect Ludhiana in Punjab with Dankuni in West Bengal. WDFC is a 1,506-km corridor connecting Dadri in Uttar Pradesh and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Mumbai. Of this, only 351-km Khurja-Bhaupur section on the EDFC and 306-km Rewari-Madar section on the WDFC have been commissioned till date. The balance sections were to be completed by June this year. Given the delays in implementation, however, it looks like a distant possibility now.

The CAG said in the report that all contracts relating to civil, electrical and signaling works were divided into a series of milestones to be achieved within the stipulated time period as provided in the respective contracts. In the JNPT-Vaitarna section of the WDFC, the range of delay in milestones is to the tune of 600 days to 1,234 days. Similarly on the Rewari-Iqbalgarh stretch on the section, the range of delay in number of days is 276-1117. In the Deen Dayal Upadhayaya-Bhaupur section (EDFC), the delay range in meeting the milestones is 90 to 1,079 days, the CAG points out.

The audit also found out delays on the overhead engineering front. “Even after passage of around one and a half years from the stipulated date of completion, the progress of different activities in respect of OHE works ranged between 26.80% and 72.33%,” said the CAG.

It may be noted that the DFCCIL project is being closely monitored by the Prime Ministers’ Office, which wants an expeditious completion of the project. In late 2020, PM Modi held a review of the project and directed the Ministry of Railways to hold weekly review of the progress. The ministry had then raised concerns on the slow pace of land acquisition by the states, a major hurdle to the project. The railway ministry had then written to the states to expedite the land acquisition for the project.