New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS): Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday reviewed the progress of the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation India Ltd (DFCCIL) with top officials of the Railways Board, and the DFCCIL.

During the meeting, the senior officials apprised the Minister about the current status of the project.

The Railway Ministry said that it is to be noted that capex utilisation in DFC increased by 21 per cent as compared to last year.

It said that in first 10 months of financial year 2020-2021, capital expenditure of Rs 8,201 crore has been registered as compared to Rs 6,783 crore for corresponding period last year despite the project getting adversely affected due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

Goyal directed the DFFCIL management team and the contractors to take all possible steps to speed up the pace of works on all the sections of the Western DFC (1,504 route km) and Eastern DFC (1,856 route km).

In the review meeting, progress of each individual section was discussed in detail and instructions were given to ensure smooth progress by resolving all hindrances.

It was also decided that strict monitoring of work of all contractors is to be done.

Resolution of all issues, including coordination with the states, is to be done on a Mission mode, the ministry said.

At least 657 km of section has already been opened in 2020-21 and more than 1,000 trains have been run.

The Eastern DFC starting from Sahnewal near Ludhiana (Punjab) will pass through the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand to terminate at Dankuni in West Bengal.

The Western Corridor connecting Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) in Mumbai will traverse through the states of UP, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra, and of WDFC and the EDFC (excluding the Sonnagar-Dankuni PPP section) i.e. 2,800 route km will be commissioned by June 2022.