New Delhi, Feb 9 : The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, has directed that the dedicated freight corridor project costing nearly one lakh crore rupees should be given the highest priority by central ministries and urged the state governments to also do so.

The project will connect a landmass over 3300 kilometers in the country and could prove to be a backbone of India''s economic transport facility.

The western corridor from Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust near Mumbai will be 1499 kilometers and will connect Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra with an exclusive high-speed railway track.

The eastern dedicated freight corridor from Ludhiana to Dankuni will be 1839 kilometer long and will connect Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. A major part of western corridor will be funded with Japanese assistance and nearly two third of the eastern corridor will be built with World Bank assistance. The Sonnagar- Dankuni section will be executed on PPP mode. Indian Railways is also investing a substantial amount in the Project.

In a meeting held in the Prime Minister''s Office, the Chief Secretaries and the representatives of the States assured the full cooperation of their state governments in taking forward this important project.

It was decided that Monitoring Committees will be constituted by the state governments to resolve the issues relating to the dedicated freight corridor project especially land-acquisition in an expeditious manner.

The representatives of the nodal authority Dedicated Freight Corridor Cooperation India Limited (DFCCIL) will be overseeing progress of work with the targeted project completion date being March 2017.

The DFCCIL has said that 67 percent of the land-acquisition has been completed through the Railway Amendment Act 2008 and as of now the project by and large is on target.

The Prime Minister''s Office (PMO) will be closely monitoring progress of the project so that necessary action is taken in a time-bound manner. (ANI)