India’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved construction of a 121·7 km broad-gauge line from Gevra Road to Pendra Road in Chhattisgarh. The Rs8·4bn project will by undertaken by a special purpose vehicle formed by Ircon International, South Eastern Coalfields and the state of Chhattishgarh. Swiss firm InterRail Holding bought a 50% stake in Azerbaijani operator AzerRail with effect from January 1, aiming to take advantage of the future Bosporus tunnel and Kars – Tbilisi project. The Port of Los Angeles broke ground for the $137·7m West Basin Railyard on January 16. The intermodal terminal will be built in two phases for completion in mid-2014, supported by a $16m federal Tiger grant. The EU’s TEN-T Programme is meeting half the cost of a €7·5m study into increasing passenger and freight capacity on the Meteren – Boxtel route in the Netherlands. Ukraine is holding talks with the World Bank on a US$500m loan for railway modernisation. This follows talks with EBRD last year. Projects would include 300 km of electrification. €1·4m is being provided by the EU’s TEN-T Programme to fund 50% of studies into 25 kV electrification of the east-west routes between Rezekne, Daugavlis, Riga, Jelgava and Ventspils in Latvia. More...
