Railway minister Lalu Prasad today announced ion parliament that construction of the eastern and western freight corridors, which are a part of the high density Golden Quadrilateral network, will commence in 2008-09.

The works of eastern freight corridor from Ludhiana to Dankuni, near Kolkata and the western corridor from Delhi to Jawahar Lal Nehru Port (JNPT) (in Navi Mumbai) have been sanctioned and I would like to assure that construction work on both these projects will commence in 2008-09.

He said detailed feasibility studies for the North-South, East-West, East-South and South-South dedicated freight corridors were being carried out.

He also said that action will be taken to expedite sanction for construction of these corridors in 2008-09. 

"The work of Daund-Gulbarga doubling and electrification of Pune-Guntakal line is proposed to be taken up to meet the demand of cement manufacturers in Wadi cluster," he said.

The work of Bhanupali-Bilaspur-Beri new line in Himachal Pradesh has also been proposed in the budget.

Prasad said gauge conversion and extension of Bhuj-Nalia line would be taken up after obtaining necessary approvals.

"More than 50 big terminals are being upgraded to increase their capacity, prominent among which are Mumbai, Pune, Chandigarh, Ghaziabad etc," he added.