Government approves over Rs 5,530 crore for infra boost in 111 cities
The Centre has approved an investment of over Rs 5,530 crore for providing basic infrastructure in over 110 cities across six states under AMRUT scheme for the current fiscal. The cental assistance to these states – Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand and Meghalaya – will be to the tune of Rs 2,453 crore. The funds will used for providing household water taps, improving water supply , sewerage networks/septage management, storm water drains, urban transport and provision of open and green spaces in these cities. “The Apex Committee, chaired by Urban Development Secretary Rajiv Gauba, approved a total investment of Rs 5,534 crore for 111 Atal Mission cities in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand and Meghalaya,” an official release said. A total central assistance of Rs 2,453 crore will be given to these states, it added. For 2016-17, approved investment in 34 mission cities of Madhya Pradesh has been Rs 2,074 crore with central assistance of Rs 862.80 crore, while Rs 1,401 crore investment is approved for 31 cities of Gujarat with central assistance of Rs 599.18 crore. For 29 cities of Rajasthan, investment of Rs 1,120 crore is approved with central assistance of Rs 536 crore; for 9 cities of Odisha Rs 531 crore with central assistance of 265 crore; for 7 cities of Jharkhand – Rs.381 crore with central assistance of Rs 164 crore and for the lone Mission city of Shillong in Meghalaya Rs 26.67 crore with central assistance of Rs 24 crore, the release said. Urban Development Ministry will also convene annual meetings of all states and UTs to review the progress of implementation of various schemes and the first such conference will be held in the next two months. The decision was conveyed to these six states which attended the meeting of the Apex Committee convened for approving annual action plans of States under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), the release said. Various stakeholders, including Ministers of Urban Development and Housing of all states/UTs, Mission Directors and Municipal Commissioners of all 500 AMRUT cities will be attending the two-day conference, it added. The six participating states informed the Committee that action is in progress for obtaining credit ratings for over 100 Mission cities and the process would be completed before the end of this year. These six states also proposed a total investment of Rs 43,569 crore by 2019-20 under AMRUT, the release said. Robert Covington Authentic Jersey
Infra companies keen on investment trusts, but want more clarity
Infrastructures developers such as IRB, GMR and IL&FS are keen to launch their infrastructure investment trusts after Sebi announced guidelines last week, but may hold their plans for more clarity on disclosure and accounting norms. An infrastructure investment trust (InvITs) offers an opportunity to promoters of projects to sell their stake in completed projects to the trust, which in turn can raise longterm and tax-free funds from unit holders.Markets regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) issued the norms for public issue of units of these InvITs which are likely to pump in liquidity into an otherwise cash-strapped infrastructure sector. “We are keen to tap this route for fundraising but until we have more clarity on accounting standards, disclosure and prospectus norms, we cannot go ahead with it. We expect Sebi to come out with guidelines on that soon so that this fund raising option can be exercised,” said IRB Infrastructure BSE 1.54 % Developers’ promoter and Chairman Virendra Mhaiskar. IRB and GMR Infrastructure BSE 0.97 % have already received the regulator’s approval for the trust while others such as Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services have sought the regulators nod. L&T is also considering this route for fundraising. “We will look at it if we have the comfort that it will get long term investors since it is a product modelled for institutional and long term investors. Investors looking for short term gain may get frustrated if they invest in it,” L&T Chief Financial Officer R Shankar Raman said. The guidelines announced by Sebi last week give these developers more flexibility by allowing sponsors to reduce their holding in the trust to 10% from 25% mandated earlier. It also allows them to invest in two-level special purpose vehicle structure and increase the number of sponsors to 5 from 3. But companies may have to tweak their plans and may be able to raise less than what they had planned initially after Sebi detailed the eligibility criteria for projects that can be included. Most infrastructure developers are struggling with low cash flows and have heavily leveraged balance sheets, which constraints their ability to bid for new projects. Several projects, and even holding companies, are on the block but there have been far too few deals. “Very few deals are going through in the secondary Market even though a lot of projects are looking for equity investments as there’s a valuation mismatch. We will have to see what kind of valuation these trusts can fetch as it is a new route and there could be some teething issues,” said Shubham Jain, vice president at the rating agency ICRA. Infrastructure developers are refraining from bidding for new projects given their financial constraints with a number of bids for Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) road project falling to 3-5 from about 20 during 2011-12. Martinas Rankin Jersey
Road transport ministry releases concept paper to take off old vehicle from the roads
The road transport and highways ministry has released the concept paper for its proposed voluntary vehicle fleet modernisation policy that aims to take off the old polluting vehicles (vehicles older than 11 years) off road. The policy aims at incentivising people to retire their old vehicles that were bought before March 2005 or are below BS IV standards. As per the government estimates, the scheme may take 28 million such units off the road and reduce emission. The concept note proposes cut in excise tax up to 50 per cent at the time of purchase of new car after scrapping old car, fair value for the scrap and discounts by automobile manufacturers. All these incentives is likely to reduce the cost of a new vehicle for a buyer by 12 per cent. It suggests complete excise exemption for state transport buses to encourage public transport and help decongest roads. “The decision of excise exemption is to be taken by finance ministry. We’ll try convincing them,” a senior government official said. “Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernisation (V-VMP) has the potential to reduce the vehicular emission by 25-30 per cent and saving oil consumption by 3.2 billion liters per year. The reducing in oil consumption by new vehicles will help save nearly Rs 7,000 crore in oil import,” said the concept note on V-VMP floated by the ministry on Thursday. The ministry has invited suggestion and objection of stakeholders within a fortnight. According to the concept note, those opting for V-VMP will have to deposit documents relating to the vehicle at the recycling centre. After verification of documents, the owner will get a V-VMP certificate and will get the price for the scrap. Then he has to provide the certificate to the dealer while buying the new vehicle to avail discount. Mats Zuccarello Womens Jersey
SpiceJet extends premium lounge service to three more airports
Budget carrier SpiceJet today expanded its premium lounge service to three more domestic airports including Varanasi. The Gurgaon-based airline already offers premium lounge facility to its fliers at airports in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi. SpiceJet has opened its new premium lounges, Club One Class Lounge at Jaipur, Varanasi and Guwahati airports, offering its customers a host of services, the airline said in a statement. Apart from comfortable seating, the lounge offers an array of facilities which include complimentary wi-fi access , flight information screen, televisions, and newspapers/magazines. The service which is available only at the domestic departure terminals of these three airports will also offer a fixed menu of eatables to be served during the operational hours of the lounge which would include soft beverages, vegetarian/non-vegetarian starters and desserts, SpiceJet said. Dennis Smith Authentic Jersey
Government to soon announce measures to curb high airfares: Minister
After months of deliberations, the government is finally going to announce a mechanism soon to curb high airfares and unveil a new civil aviation policy to address all major issues affecting the sector. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said the civil aviation policy will lay out a roadmap to make India a leading player in the sector which is growing at over 20 per cent currently. The policy will be placed before the cabinet within two weeks. He said government’s priority is to improve infrastructure and it is investing around Rs 15,000 crore in 2016-17 in upgrading of the existing airports and setting up new ones. On fixing airfares, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was very keen to have an upper cap on the ticket price and government would announce the measures while taking views of the airlines and that it would be by consensus and not through any regulation. “We are in the process of adopting certain measures to cap ticket price. But we are trying to do it by consensus and not by regulation. Our Prime Minister also envisions that fares be kept in control,” Sharma told PTI in an interview. Airfares usually go up by around 40-50 per cent during the festive seasons and vacations. The airlines had faced severe criticism when the fares had even touched as high as Rs 50,000 for a one way ticket between Bengaluru and Delhi during the Chennai floods in December last year. The fares had gone up significantly during the recent Jat agitation as well. Aviation regulator DGCA had last week said that discussions need to be held with airlines before any decision on fixing upper cap on ticket prices. “If a capping of airfares is required, then we will have to have discussions with them (airlines),” Directorate General of Civil Aviation Chief M Sathiyavathy said. On the civil aviation policy, which is hanging fire since for a long time, the Minister said majority of the issues were sorted out. India is currently ranked ninth in the global aviation market and it is aspiring to become third largest by 2025, Sharma said. The Minister said the basic thrust of the aviation policy will be to expand growth of the sector. “We wanted to make it a fool proof policy that is why we went through repeated meetings.” He said the policy will address all the pending issues including the 5/20 norm, regional connectivity scheme and the ground handling issues. Under 5/20 norm, a domestic airline cannot fly overseas unless it has completed five years of operation on local routes and has a fleet of 20 aircraft. Garrett Grayson Jersey
Centre to distribute 5 crore LPG connections in country: Narendra Singh Tomar
The Centre will distribute five crore LPG connections nationwide with a view to conserve the environment and protect women from pollution, Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said today. “To conserve the environment and to protect women from pollution (caused by traditional cooking stoves and open hearths), the Modi government will distribute five crore LPG connections across the country. It will be given in the name of the women members of the family,” the Union Minister of Steel and Mines said. Under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana’, the Centre has recently launched an ambitious Rs 8,000 crore scheme for providing five crore free LPG connections to BPL families using the money saved from 1.13 crore cooking gas users voluntarily giving up their subsidies. He was addressing a rally at Seevanpat village in Ghodadongri Assembly constituency, where a bypoll is scheduled to be held on May 30. The by-election was necessitated due to the death of BJP MLA Sajjan Singh Uikey. BJP has fielded Mangal Singh Dhurve in the tribal dominated Ghodadongri (ST) constituency, while Congress has given ticket to former minister Pratap Singh Uikey. Derek Rivers Womens Jersey
GAIL reconfigures Rs 120 billion Jagdishpur-Haldia gas pipeline
Country’s biggest natural gas transporter GAIL India Ltd has reconfigured the Rs 120 billion Jagdishpur-Haldia pipeline, which will connect Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political constituency Varanasi to the gas grid, to link the Dhamra terminal. The over 2,500-kilometer line will be constructed in three phases and will also now connect Adani Group’s Dhamra LNG import terminal in Odisha, GAIL Chairman and Managing Director B C Tripathi said here. In the first phase, a trunk pipeline from Phulpur (Allahabad) will be laid to Dobhi (Gaya) in Bihar with spur lines to Barauni and Patna. “The 755-km Phase-1 project will cost Rs 32 billion and will be completed by December 2018,” he said. This section will take natural gas to Varanasi for not just feeding local industries but also for retailing CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas for households. GAIL already as a line up to Phulpur. It is raising capacity of this pipeline by laying a 672-km parallel line from Vijaipur in Madhya Pradesh to Phulpur via Auriaya in Uttar Pradesh at the cost of Rs 43 billion. In the Phase-II, a 1200-km line would be laid from Dobhi to Bokaro/Ranchi in Jharkhand and Angul and Dharma in Odisha at the cost of Rs 55.65 billion, he said, adding that Phase-III will involve laying 583-km line to Haldia at the cost of Rs 34.25 billion. “While we can confirm that Phase-1 will be completed by December 2018, Phase-II and III completion will depend on the fertiliser plants coming up in the region as well as the timing of the Dharma LNG terminal,” he said. The phase-1 project will supply gas to major industries such as the Barauni Refinery and the Barauni fertilizer plant, which is being revived, besides power and steel plants. It will also help in setting up of City Gas Networks in major cities enroute. Previously, Jagdishpur-Haldia pipeline was to span over 2,050-km but the length has now been increased with addition of Dharma port connectivity. GAIL originally proposed to lay the pipeline from Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh to Haldia in West Bengal nearly a decade back. But the project was put on the back burner due to non availability of gas and customers. The project was revived after BJP government came to power in May 2014 and it was felt that Modi’s constituency, Varanasi should be connected to the gas grid at the earliest. Also, the pipeline was needed for revival the fertiliser units in Barauni in Bihar and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. Tripathi said GAIL is also investing Rs 20 billion in replacing old pipelines in Cauvery and Krishna Godavari area of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu as well as in Gujarat. “We are laying 700-km of new pipeline to replaced 35-40 years old pipelines,” he said Ondrej Pavelec Authentic Jersey