The World Bank Board has approved $650 million towards the third loan for the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (a freight-only rail line). This project mainly aims at improving the speed of movement of raw materials and finished goods between the northern and eastern parts of India. The third round of World Bank funding will build the 401 km Ludhiana-Khurja section in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab.

The Eastern Corridor is 1,840 km long and extends from Ludhiana to Kolkata. The World Bank is supporting the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) as a series of projects in which the three sections with a total route length of 1,146 km will be delivered sequentially.  The Cabinet has recently approved the revised cost estimate of Rs.81,459 crore for the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) Project.

• The first loan of $975 million for the 343 km Khurja-Kanpur section in the EDFC program was approved by the World Bank Board in May 2011 and is already under implementation.
• The second loan of $1.1 billion for EDFC2 which covers 402 km from Kanpur to Mughal Sarai was approved by the World Bank in April 2014.
• The EDFC is part of India’s first Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) initiative – being built on two main routes – the Western and the Eastern Corridors.
• The loan, from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), has a 7-year grace period, and a maturity of 22 years.