Rohtas (Patna), Feb 10: Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi will inaugurate construction work on the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) at Rohtas in Bihar today.

Railways Minister Lalu Prasad, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Meira Kumar, Ministers of State for Railways Naranbhai J. Rathwa and Dr. R. Velu and Minister of State for Tourism and Culture, Kanti Singh will also be present on the occasion.

Construction of the Eastern Corridor will commence on the Sonnagar- Mughalsarai (127 kms.) portion and will be taken up initially on a 105 kms. portion from New Ganjkhwaja near Mughalsarai to New Karwandia near Sonnagar.

This portion will be funded by equity from the Indian Railways.

The construction tender for the 105 kms. New Karwandia to New Ganjkhwaja portion of Sonnagar-Mughalsarai portion has already been awarded.

The project on the Western and Eastern routes is one of the most ambitious projects that Indian Railways has ever taken up, and once completed, it would meet the transport requirements of two busy truck routes.

The Eastern corridor from Ludhiana to Dankuni (1801 kms.) will pass via Saharanpur, Khurja, Kanpur, Mughalsarai and Sonnagar and will be single line on the Ludhiana-Khurja portion (426 kms.) and double line on the remaining portion.

The Western corridor from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) to Tughlakabad/Dadri (1483 kms.) will pass via Surat. Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Palanpur, Ajmer ad Rewari and will be a double-line corridor, except a 32 kms. single line link from the main corridor to Tughlakabad. (ANI)