The Government is likely to soon appoint two key officials in the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCCIL), the special purpose vehicle that is implementing the Eastern and Western dedicated rail freight corridor projects, valued at ₹1 lakh crore.

Adesh Sharma, the present Chief Administrative Officer (Construction), South Western Railway, and DS Rana are likely to be appointed as Managing Director and Director (Infrastructure) of DFCCIL. While Sharma’s appointment has already been forwarded by the Public Enterprises Selection Board, Rana is already posted as officer on special duty at DFCCIL. Anshuman Sharma, Director (Project Planning), currently holds additional charge of Director – Infrastructure and as Managing Director.

The appointments are crucial as DFCCIL plans to award contracts worth ₹10,000 crore in the current fiscal. The projects to be awarded include the civil contract for the Mughal Sarai-Kanpur stretch on the World Bank-funded Eastern corridor and some electrical and bridge contracts on the Western corridor.

The projects are expected to be completed by December 2019, for which these need to be awarded within the stipulated time. Moreover, there are cross-penalties built in the contract awarded by DFCCIL, as a result of which contractors and DFCCIL will have to bear extra costs in case one stakeholder does not ensure timely completion of its part of the project, delaying another stakeholder.

Also, DFCCIL will have to bear cost over-runs on account of any increase in tax incidence of the contractor due any change in taxation rules.

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