East Central Railway Invites ₹4,039.75 Crore EPC Bids for Koderma Detour Double-Line Section of Eastern DFC
East Central Railway (ECR) Construction Organisation (South) has invited bids for an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract estimated at ₹4,039.75 crore to build a new double railway line in the Koderma Detour section of the Sonnagar–Andal 3rd and 4th Line project. The works fall under the Dhanbad Division of ECR and form part of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) extension from Sonnagar to Andal.
The project covers roughly 26 km, from Chainage 158.00 to Chainage 184.00, and the line is being built to meet Dedicated Freight Corridor loading standards. Scope of work includes construction of viaducts, rail-over-rail and rail flyover structures, major and minor bridges, animal underpasses, road-under-bridge and limited-height subway structures, tunnels, and cut-and-cover sections, along with earthwork, blanketing, buildings, and retaining walls.
The tender was published on 4 September 2026, carries an earnest money requirement of about ₹80.79 crore, and specifies a completion period of 1,600 days. Two pre-bid conferences are scheduled for 29 September and 22 October 2026, and bids can be submitted up to 5 January 2027, with the bidding process set to commence on 22 December 2026.
The Koderma Detour has been proposed because the Eastern DFC alignment generally runs north of the existing Indian Railways track, except in the Koderma–Paharpur stretch, where technical constraints require a detour. The route passes through the Hazaribagh and Koderma districts of Jharkhand and the Gaya district of Bihar.