CBI files case against AISATS officials over royalty evasions
A day after it asked six international airlines operating in the state capital airport to submit details of charges paid to ground-handling firm AISATS, the agency on Thursday registered a case against its officials for evasion of royalty charges payable to Airport Authority of India. AISATS, a 50:50 joint venture between Air India Ltd, and leading gateway services and food solutions provider SATS Ltd., has been engaged in ground handling duties at the Thiruvananthapuram airport since 2012. The Kochi unit of the Central Bureau of Investigation’s anti-corruption bureau has registered a case against AISATS vice president Binoy Jacob and finance manager P.K.Anandan. On Wednesday, CBI officials arrived at Thiruvananthapuram airport and asked six international airlines to submit their statement of accounts of their business transactions with AISATS by April 11. The CBI started to probe financial dealings between AISATS and Airport Authority of India, ever since whistle blower Air India staff L.S.Sibu, last year wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, CBI and the Central Vigilance Commission saying he suspected foul play in the AISATS’ dealings.
India’s domestic passenger demand up 25 percent: IATA
A leading global airlines’ association on Thursday reported that India’s domestic passenger demand grew by 24.6 percent in February. “India led all domestic markets again with a 24.6 percent year-on-year growth, supported by the strong economic backdrop, as well as notable increases in services,” said International Air Transport Association (IATA) in its global passenger traffic results for February. “This trend is expected to continue with flight frequencies in 2016 scheduled to increase by 11.5 percent year-on-year,” it said. According to IATA, India’s passenger traffic demand grew the fastest amongst the seven major aviation markets of the world — Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, Russian Federation and the US. “All markets except Brazil showed growth, with the strongest increases occurring in India, the US and China,” IATA cited. India’s traffic demand growth was followed by that of the US at 8.9 percent, China at 8.2 percent, Australia at 4.6 percent, the Russian Federation at 3.4 percent and Japan at 1.4 percent. However, Brazil’s domestic passenger growth slumped by 3.1 percent during the month under review.
Road building pace at all-time high of 20 km a day: Nitin Gadkari
Road construction in India has accelerated to an all-time high pace of 20 kilometres per day, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday. Gadkari said that his ministry will be constructing 25 km of roads per day by the time the Narendra Modi led NDA government completes two years next month. The current pace is a third more than the previous best of 15 km per day achieved in 2012. “We’ll touch our target of 30 kilometres per day in another five-six months,” Gadkari said at industry body CII’s annual session. In the current financial year, the government has a target of constructing 10,000 km of greenfield highways, for which it has made a budgetary allocation of Rs 57,000 crore. Gadkari said that his ministry has proposed the formation of dispute resolution mechanism to the finance ministry for projects that are stuck. “We have requested the finance ministry to form a four-member dispute resolution cell for road projects for early implementation of stuck projects,” he said. About 14 road projects with an investment of over Rs 25,000 crore are stuck due to various reasons including cost escalation. Gadkari said adoption of a projectspecific approach to address the issue of stalled projects has already resolved about 85% of these projects. “The emphasis now has been on awarding the projects under the innovative hybrid annuity and toll-operate-transfer mode so that there are more opportunities for private sector investment,” Gadkari said. The minister said the government has already awarded contracts worth Rs 1.8 lakh crore. “We’ll award road construction projects worth Rs 3 lakh crore by 2017,” he said. He also urged the private sector to develop lighthouses and islands in and around waterways which will spur tourism as well.
LPG pipelines to kitchens soon, says MP
If everything goes as planned, pipelines will bring liquid petroleum gas (LPG) to your kitchens in 2-3 years. The Indian Oil Corporation and Adani Company have taken up a scheme that envisages laying of pipelines 53km around Hubballi and Dharwad and 2,300km in the twin cities to supply cooking gas. MP Prahlad Joshi, who held a meeting of stakeholders at the deputy commissioner’s office on Wednesday, said the scheme was sanctioned by the Centre last year but the work of laying underground pipeline could not be taken up as the roads were being dug up for other works. A meeting of officials of the Hubballi-Dharwad municipal corporation and the district administration to finalize the tender will be held soon. “Under the Deendayal Rural Development Programme, Rs 400 million has been released and the amount will be spent on installing smart boards in schools and solar grid at government hospitals,” Joshi said.