According to the final project alignment design prepared by Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL), the railways need to acquire 12,500 hectares over 51 districts in seven states. This is in sharp contrast to the earlier report by RITES Ltd, which said 8,833 hectares needed to be acquired for the proposed eastern and western freight corridor project.

RITES had prepared its earlier design on the premise that the new track would run parallel to the existing ones and did not take into consideration the high traffic density, busy towns and forest areas through which the new line would pass.

"We had to modify the project alignment design to minimise modifications to existing railway installations and skirt busy towns, cities and forest areas," said a senior DFCCIL official.

With these modifications, the area needed for the detour alignment has increased. Detour alignment refers to the area that is over one km from the existing track.

"Earlier, the detour alignment was just 25 per cent of the total land required. However, in our final study, it has gone up to 40 per cent of the total land area," said the official.

Out of the 1,483-km western freight corridor between Dadri and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, 588 km fall under the detour alignment while in the case of the 1,256-km eastern corridor between Khurja and Son Nagar, the detour alignment stands at 528 km.

The railways have already prepared land acquisition plans for 2,200 km. The gazette notification for acquiring 1,077 km has already been issued. These areas mainly fall in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. By the end of January 2009, the railways will be able to acquire nearly 100 km near Kanpur. The remaining areas will be acquired over six months.