Gadkari: Rs. 11,900 cr for making highways safer
The Union Surface Ministry is planning to spend Rs. 11,900 crore for the removal of black spots (danger/accident-prone zones) on the National Highways by making the requisite changes in the road design, Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari has said. The minister was speaking at the inaugural of the two-day National Workshop on Road Safety 2016 which began here on Friday. He said it was a matter of serious concern that 1.5 lakh people were dying on Indian roads every year and the Centre with the cooperation of the States was committed to bringing down the road accident deaths. The total length of National Highways in India was 96,000 km and the plan was to increase it to 2 lakh km, but the focus would be on making them safer. Attributing 70 to 80 per cent of the road accidents to road engineering defects, he said 786 black spots were identified on the National Highways and funds would be allocated under the Pradhan Manthri Surakshit Sadak Yojana for making the necessary design changes. The rectification of the identified black spots would be done within two years. He said 30 per cent of the driving licences issued in the country were fake, and he urged the States to leverage technology to check corruption in the Transport Department. The other plans of the Centre include: allocation of Rs. 1 crore as grant for every district for the development of driving test tracks, driver training and vehicle fitness testing centres, launching of 1,000 emergency ambulances along the National Highways in the country for safe and timely shifting of accident victims to hospitals, road safety education to children and use of technology to minimise corruption in the Transport Department. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who had inaugurated the workshop earlier, welcomed the idea of the Union Minister to establish an accident fund to repay the loans taken from banks to provide various road safety initiatives. He said that 700 black spots were identified on all roads in AP and the State Government would take all steps to address the problem and bring down the accident rate. Gale Sayers Womens Jersey
Aviation soars with 25% growth in passenger traffic; IndiGo’s domestic market share hits almost 40%
India’s aviation sector is soaring new highs and touching new skies, with the month-on-month passenger growth for the month of July hitting a record 25%. The total number of passengers carried by domestic airlines during the January to July 2016 period were 560.87 lakh versus 455.95 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year, thereby registering a growth of 23.01%, says the latest data released by DGCA. Indigo topped on the domestic airlines front, with a market share of 39.8%. Jet Airways had a share of 16.3%. While Air India’s domestic airline market share was reported at 14.8%, that of SpiceJet was 11.7%. The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of July 2016 was 0.70%, with Air Costa and Go Air recording the lowest of 0% and 0.02% and Air Pegasus and Trujet the highest at 29.67% and 17.38% respectively. At 36.6%, technical factors dominated the reasons for cancellations. During July 2016, 948 passenger related complaints were received by the scheduled domestic airlines. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried stood at 1.1. The biggest reason for passenger complaints was Flight problem. India’s aviation sector is soaring new highs and touching new skies, with the month-on-month passenger growth for the month of July hitting a record 25%. For the second quarter of this calendar year, the market share of Air India had remained constant at 15.4%, while that of IndiGo increased to 38.4% versus 37% in Q1. Jet Airways witnessed a decline in market share from 18.2% to 16.1%, while that of Jet Lite increased to 2.9% versus 2.7%. SpiceJet also saw a decline in market share from 13% to 12.7%. Caleb Sturgis Jersey
NTPC plans to become biggest renewable energy company in 10 years
NTPC, India’s largest electricity generator, is tweaking its expansion plan to become the biggest renewable energy company in the next 10 years. The stateowned company’s Rs 5 lakh crore capital expenditure plan will be skewed towards adding renewable energy capacity instead of setting up more thermal units. NTPC has targeted generation capacity of 128,000 megawatts by 2030 from the present level of over 47,000 MW. “Keeping the total capacity addition constant, we are recasting the expansion plan to increase the mix of renewable power capacity and reduce the share of thermal power,” a senior NTPC official said. The utility had earlier decided to set up renewable energy capacity of about 10,000 MW in the next four years. This figure is likely to be revised upwards as part of the plan to enhance renewable power generation. Its current renewable energy portfolio consists of nine solar power plants with 360 MW of capacity. “Total investment as a result is likely to be Rs 5 lakh crore. Out of the total investment, NTPC will have to shell out a maximum of Rs 1.5 lakh crore as equity for the expansion plan. Rest of the funds are to be financed by long-term debt,” said the official. NTPC’s decision to reduce the share of thermal power and increase renewable energy generation is to align itself with global trends of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing clean sources of energy. India has set a renewable power deployment target of 175 GW by 2022, which includes 100 GW from solar and 60 GW from wind energy. “Over the last few years, large foreign financial institutions have drastically reduced their exposure to coal-fired projects under pressure from green lobbies. At present, procuring foreign loans for renewable energy projects is far easier than thermal power projects. A green power generation company also attracts global equity investors,” a senior analyst said. Of the 10,000 MW of renewable energy capacity planned, NTPC has commissioned 250 MW and has started work on developing 3,010 MW of projects. It also plans to set up about 800 MW of solar plants on water reservoirs at thermal power plants. Erik Walden Jersey
Essar Oil to more than double filling stations to 5,000
Essar Oil aims to expand its petrol pump network to 5,000 over the next 12-15 months from 2,400 at present, a senior company official said. The Ruias-run firm, which has agreed to sell a majority stake to Russia’s Rosneft, expects its export volume to nearly halve from the present 45-50 per cent once these 5,000 outlets are operational. The company also expects sales volume to touch 10 million KL over the next two-three years from 2.5 million KL now. “Oil price deregulation has given us an excellent opportunity and we’ve been able to ramp up our network from about 1,600 a year ago to about 2,400 now. “We plan to take this to 4,300 operational outlets by March 2017 which should lead to significant rise in sales volume and 5,000 thereafter,” Essar Oil MD and CEO Lalit Kumar Gupta told PTI. He also said a good number of new filling stations will come up in small towns, “especially in tier-2 and 3 cities and along highways.” When asked about investments, he said it will need about Rs 2,100 crore, mainly through franchisees, and create nearly 20,000 new jobs in the next one year alone. The government de-regulated diesel prices in a phased manner from October 2014 following the massive crash in crude prices, thereby throwing open the fuel retail sector. Essar Oil, which operates the second largest private sector refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat with 23 million tonne annual capacity, is aligning its retail expansion plans in line with industry growth, he said. “We see our retail sales to increase annually to about 10 million KL over the next two-three years from 2.5 million KL now,” Gupta said. His optimism comes from the falling prices, increased mobility due to faster urbanisation coupled with the smart city projects and focus on improving infrastructure. Essar Oil was the first domestic private sector company to enter fuel retailing back in 2003. Jason Motte Womens Jersey
Users of 24 Pahal cylinders up 260%, diversion likely
An audit scrutiny has revealed a significant jump in consumers using more than 24 LPG cylinders a year following the introduction of direct benefit transfer (DBTL) for cooking gas, leading the federal auditor to suspect diversion of non-subsidised cylinders for commercial use. The national average consumption of domestic LPG cylinders is 6.27 a year.However, after the implementation of `Pahal’ or the DBTL scheme, the number of domestic consumers exhausting more than 24 LPG cylinders in first seven months of 2015-16 increased by 260% compared to the total offtake of non-subsidised cylinders in 2014-15. The whole of 2014-15 saw 3,070 domestic consumers availing more than 24 cylinders. But just the seven months between April and October of 2015-16, saw 8,023 domestic consumers use more than 24 cylinders. The comptroller and auditor general (CAG), which has carried out scrutiny of 12 crore LPG consumers, has asked the government to check the possibility of “diversion of non-subsidised domestic LPG for commercial use”. The price dif ferential between non-subsidised cylinder and commercial cylinder is Rs 233 per cylinder. It has observerd the risk of diversion is highest in cylinders distributed by Indian Oil. The government introduced the DBTL scheme in November 2014. The scheme involves 16.17 crore LPG consumers serviced by 16,781 LPG distributers by three oil marketing companies–Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum. A domestic consumer is entitled to receive subsidy on 12 cylinders per annum under the DBTL scheme.Any excess consumption would result in payment of the market price. “The number of domestic consumers consuming more than 24 LPG cylinders during the first seven months of 2015-16 (April to October 2015) exceeded the corre sponding numbers for the entire year of 2014-15 by 261%,” the CAG said. The federal auditor highlighted the risk associated with higher consumption of domestic non-subsidised LPG cylinders since there is a significant price difference between the price of commercial and domestic non-subsidised LPG on account of additional duties and levies. The duty differential on an equivalent 14.2 kg LPG cylinder would cost Rs 233.20 higher for the non-subsidised cylinder compared to commercial LPG cylinder. The number of domestic consumers consuming more than 24 cylinders in the first seven months of 2015-16 was 2.6 times that of the entire year of 2014-15. “There has been a sharp increase in offtake of domestic LPG cylinders not entitled to receive subsidy , which increases the risk of diversion,” the auditor observed. Da’Ron Payne Jersey
India may open talks on foreign flying rights
India is likely to further open foreign flying entitlements with several countries, helping ease travel worries on some of the usually busy routes and start direct flights to Greece. Over the next two months, India will start negotiations on foreign flying rights with Nigeria, Dubai, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Cambodia to add more seats on the routes. Greece currently doesn’t have any such pact with India and the two sides are considering a deal for the first time. This is also the first time in two years that the government is negotiating foreign flying rights at such a large scale. “The plan is to negotiate agreements with all six nations. The increase will primarily be pegged on quota sought by Indian carriers,” said a senior aviation ministry official, who did not want to be named. Analysts said any increase in bilateral entitlements is good for consumers as it means more flights in the international sector, but they wanted the government to formulate an international strategy as well. Better connectivity will further improve India’s integration with the world economy. To start with, it will boost tourism, trade and the hospitality sector. And in the medium term and beyond, the policy move will step up investment, including Foreign Direct Investment, and better allocate funds for infrastructure. Jean-Gabriel Pageau Authentic Jersey
Mohali to get five new power grids of 66 KV capacity
To overcome the problem of power shortage in Mohali, five new grids of 66 KV capacity will be set up within the next one year. As many as 200 transformers will also be replaced in the district for uninterrupted power supply to the farmers and in rural areas. The power overhaul will be done under the Progressive Power Development and Modification Programme. Under the project, 30km power distribution lines will be made underground in the city and the work in the direction will also be completed withing six months. The officials of the power department said the central government has approved grants for power rejuvenation and development works in urban areas under Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (APDRP) wherein Rs 40 crore has been approved for Mohali district and Rs 10 crore for Roop Nagar and Nawa Shehar districts each. With the setting up of the new power grids, the city will get the uninterrupted power supply and the problem of long power cuts can also be solved. At present, the district has a demand of around 60,000 units per day, while the supply is around 36,000 units. The officials said with the reforms in the power sector the gap between demand and supply will reduce in the next two years. Anandpur Sahib MP Prem Singh Chandumajra also said the grant has been issued for the power reforms and he will oversee the work. Jason Taylor Womens Jersey
Defaulters not eligible for new power connections: HC
The KSEB cannot be asked to provide a new connection to a customer if dues from an earlier connection remains unsettled for the very same premises, the Kerala high court has held. The decision by Justice AM Shaffique was after considering a petition (WP-C 30150/2013) filed by Kochumon Shamsudeen of Kayamkulam. An anti-power-theft squad (APTS) had imposed a penalty of Rs 3.79 lakh on the petitioner for unauthorized use of 7,254 watts of energy. During the inspection, it was allegedly found the petitioner, who had a power connection, had extended it to another new building. According to KSEB, it was understood during further verification that a new building was constructed in the premises where an old building existed, which had a consumer number. Cases were filed against arrears of current charges but were dismissed. The consumer number was thereafter dismantled. The extension that was being illegally used was given to the building constructed in the premises where the old consumer number existed. As the petitioner declined to deposit 50 per cent of the penalty, an appellate authority had confirmed the order on January 17, 2014. At the high court, the petitioner argued that he had been requesting a new connection to the new building all along. He sought a court directive to KSEB to provide a new connection. KSEB opposed this argument and informed the court that once there is a liability to be discharged, there is no question of giving any further power connection to the new building constructed in the very same premises. Ruling in favour of KSEB, the court held, “As far as the claim for regularisation of the power connection to the premises where an earlier Consumer No.4216 existed, as indicated by the respondents, if there is a liability in respect of the said premises, the board cannot be called upon to provide a new connection, unless the liability is settled. Under such circumstances, it is not possible for this Court to issue any direction as sought for by the petitioner.” If the petitioner is willing to settle the entire liability related to the earlier connection, KSEB can take appropriate action, the court said. Dede Westbrook Womens Jersey
CM asks officials to ensure uninterrupted power
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday directed officials of the energy department to ensure that there are no power cuts, whatever the situation is even during summers across the state. Chairing a review meeting with Minister D K Shivakumar, Siddaramaiah admitted that the power situation was grim because of water scarcity in the state due to lack of rainfall and water storage in the dams. He directed officials of all electricity supply companies (Escoms), Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd (KPCL) and Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (KPTCL) officials to prepare medium and long term plans to ensure sufficient power for summer. Siddaramaiah assured citizens that 24-hour power supply to Bengaluru and seven hours power supply to farmers will continue even in summers. Shivakumar pointed out that many sugarcane industries were eager to generate and supply power to the grid. If this materialises, then there were will an additional supply of 800-900 MW to the grid every day. The Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) was immediately directed to fix the rate to purchase power after discussing with industries. Shivakumar added that since hydel resources were adversely affected, thrust was being laid on solar generation and by December 2016, 500 MW solar power will also be added. Plans were also being made to purchase power from other sources to ensure that there is no gap in the demand and supply. D K Shivakumar, Energy Minister: Many sugarcane industries were eager to generate and supply power to the grid. If this materialises, then there were will an additional supply of 800-900 MW to the grid every day. Vladimir Ducasse Jersey
Aviation ministry to meet foreign delegates, stress on auction for additional seats
In a bid to curb any increase in bilateral airline seat entitlements and push for auction process to allocate additional seats, the ministry of civil aviation will meet official delegates from West Asian and European countries later this month. This comes in the wake of the underutilisation of seats by Indian carriers. Indian airlines use less than 40% of their entitlements, while foreign carriers operating here manage to utilise over 80% of their entitled number of seats. This has helped foreign carriers to corner the international traveller segment. While Indian carriers offered 242,000 seats in June this year, foreign carriers offered 432,000 seats, according to data provided by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Also, Indian carriers fly to only 66 of the 108 countries with which India has bilateral air agreements. A senior aviation ministry official, requesting anonymity, said the meetings with delegates will start later this month and exact dates will be finalised soon. InfraCircle on August 12 reported about the government’s plans to discuss the auction concept with different carriers and implement it before the revised summer schedule comes into effect by March end next year. Pavel Datsyuk Womens Jersey