Indian Railways Terminate Rs 471 Crore Contract With China Due To 'Poor Progress'

NEW DELHI: The Railways has decided to terminate the contract of a Chinese company due to "poor progress" on the signalling and telecommunication work on the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor's 417-km section between Kanpur and Mughalsarai.

The decision comes in the backdrop of the death of 20 Indian soldiers in Galwan Valley in Ladakh following violent clash with Chinese troops on Monday night.

The Railways had given the contract worth Rs 471 crore to Beijing National Railway Research and Design Institute of Signal and Communication Group in 2016. The company's work includes design, construction, supply, testing and commissioning of signalling, telecommunication and related works, according to a news agency.

The Railways said that they were supposed to complete the work by 2019, but only 20 per cent of the work has been completed so far.

Officials, however, said it was poor performance and inability to deliver the project on time that led to the decision by the implementing agency, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation Limited (DFCCIL), to terminate the contract.

Officials said apart from performance issues, the Chinese company had also shown reluctance in furnishing technical documents, as per the contract agreement, such as logic design of electronic interlocking.

It also did not have engineers or authorized personnel at the project site which was a serious concern, they said. The company also failed to have tie-ups with local agencies which harmed the physical progress of the work, officials pointed out.

"There is no improvement in progress despite repeated meetings with them at every possible level," officials were quoted saying by the news agency.

The Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor or Eastern DFC is a freight specific railway under construction from northern to eastern part of India and is scheduled to be completed by 2022.