The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) has cancelled their contract with Tata Projects because the construction of a 102-kilometre-long last-mile stretch of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridors is taking a significant amount of time.
The cancellation is bound to push the completion date by at least two years till 2026. There will also be a two-year ban on Tata Projects & partners where they won’t be allowed to bid for DFCCIL and other government entities for the next 2 years.
The DFCCIL rejected a loan request by Tata Project to complete the 1,506-km Western DFC project back in October.
The Ministry of Railways-run DFCCIL awarded the contract for laying civil and track works between Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Maharashtra and Makarpur near Vadodra in Gujarat to Express Freight Consortium, which was led by Japan’s Mitsui & Co Ltd and comprises state-run IRCON International Ltd and Tata Projects in 2016 and 2017.
As per the contract, the 422 km long stretch was divided between Tata Projects and IRCON International. The former was responsible to complete the 134km stretch between Makarpura to Sachin in Gujarat and then Vaitarana to JLN Port in Maharashtra. (102km) while the latter was supposed to build 186km long section from Sachin to Vaitarana in Maharashtra.
IRCON and Tata Projects had been jointly working on civil engineering work and laying out tracks on the entire 422-km section while Mitsui & Co had served as the Project Management Consultant.
However, Tata Projects is claiming that the company is already done with 39% of the work and the unexpected delay is happening because of land acquisition and encroachment issues.
Tata Projects has sought a court stay on the termination order by the DFFCIL.
