‘Structuring the Dedicated Freight Corridor Project: A Lost Opportunity’; IIM-A study criticizes Indian Railways

The Indian Railways has been criticized by a study conducted IIM- Ahmedabad. As per the study the Railways have failed to grant autonomy to the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL), and has instead become its single owner and customer. This has resulted into lack of risk-sharing and guaranteed completion of project.

The study titled ‘Structuring the Dedicated Freight Corridor Project: A Lost Opportunity’, asserts that the unbundling that has been done in other infrastructure domains (aviation, maritime and road) to bring in greater autonomy and accountability, has not done in the railways. The study points at the railways Achilles’ heel in areas such as ownership structure, contracting strategy, role and market access of DFCCIL.

It points out that the Railways’ task force did not consider a third party ownership through an open competitive bid, a model that has been embraced by the roads, ports and airports sector. The model could have a generated more commercial and entrepreneurial energy into the project.