Long overdue road projects cleared
The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways today cleared the long overdue project of four laning of 31.5 km Itanagar to Banderdewa NH-415. Union Road Transport and Highway Minister Nitin Gadkari cleared the project when state Chief Minister Pema Khandu called on him at New Delhi. Gadkari instructed the National Highway authorities to immediately start the work, an official release said here. On the request of the chief minister for maintenance of the roads, Gadkari issued directives to the authorities to repair capital roads on timely manner and make it motorable round the year. The National Highway authorities would repair and maintain the capital roads till the much awaited Itanagar-Banderdewa four lane highway comes up, the release said. In another important development, the ministry agreed for declaration of four roads as National Highways. The roads are Akajan-Likabali-Bame (106 km) in West Siang, Margherita-Changlang road (37 km) in Changlang, Daporijo to Dollungmukh via Dumporijo along the left bank of Subansiri River (125 Km), and Tezu to Chapakhowa via Sunpura. During an hour long discussion, Khandu suggested the ministry to try use of geo-textile technology to tackle landslides issues of hilly roads. The union minister appreciated the suggestion and assured him that such technology would be planned for projects in Arunachal Pradesh on an experimental basis, the release said. Gale Sayers Jersey
‘Rs 5,763 crore project to decongest Delhi to become India’s first green road’
The Rs 5,763 crore Eastern Peripheral Expressway project to decongest Delhi is on fast-track to completion in about “400 days” to become India’s first 135 km green road to be lit entirely by solar panels and have advanced traffic system. The project, which commenced in May, will consume a million tonnes of flyash from NTPC’s various thermal plants to utilise waste and minimise pollution. On completion, the greenfield project that had hit several road blocks and saw laying of its foundation by Prime Minster Narendra Modi in November last year, will divert around 2 lakh vehicles passing through the national capital daily to this bypass, curtailing pollution. “I expect this project to be completed by August next year. Apart from being access-controlled, this will have the best automatic traffic management system, land-scaping, way side amenities etc. This is going to be a boon for Delhi. This will set the pace and the path for many such expressway projects which are greenfield in nature all across the country,” NHAI Chairman Raghav Chandra told PTI. Chandra, who inspected the project sites in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, said all 5 contractors on 6 packages of the project are working day and night giving confidence to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) that the project will be completed much ahead of the Supreme Court deadline that is July 2018. “However, we hope to complete the project in about 400 days,” he said. The expressway passes through Sonipat, Bagpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Faridabad and Palwal in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, and the proposed alignment crosses river Yamuna at Khurrampur/Khata in UP and Faizpur Khadar in Haryana and crosses the river Hindon. Chandra further said: “We require huge quantity of flyash and were lifting the same from NTPC’s Dadri, Badarpur and Panipat thermal plants. Earlier we were permitted to take flyash only between 10 am to 5 pm but given the massive requirement, I had a talk with NTPC Chairman and now we are lifting flyash day and night.” The NHAI Chief said earlier there was resistance from farmers over land and other issues which have been solved and they are being given higher compensation. The Supreme Court has directed police chiefs of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to provide security for expeditious completion of the project in light of attempts by miscreants and vested interests obstructing the work. “Director Generals of Police, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have been extending full cooperation and our work is in full swing,” Chandra said. The project work has been divided into six packages – 21-km stretch in Sonepat-Baghpat, 24.5 km stretch in Baghpat- Ghaziabad, 24.5-km stretch in Ghaziabad-GB Nagar, 22-km stretch in GN Nagar, 21-km stretch in GN Nagar-Faridabad and 22-km stretch in Faridabad-Palwal. “There are a total of 390 structures in this project out of which two major bridges are on river Yamuna and one major bridge on river Hindon and Agra Canal,” Chandra said. “There are 8 interchanges, 4 flyovers, 71 vehicle underpasses, 6 RoBs etc. The work has been started on 209 structures including all the four major bridges. There is substantial progress on these,” the NHAI Chief said. There has been a very healthy competition among all the developers — Gayatri Projects, Oriental Structural, Sadbhav Engineering, Jaiprakash Associates and Ashoka Buildcon. Watering for the project will be carried out through dip irrigation to save water, Chandra said, adding, “the entire lighting on the expressway shall be with solar power. There is a close tolling system. The user will have to pay for the distance travelled by him on the expressway. “The advanced electronic toll system will be used for collection. The overloaded vehicles will not be allowed to travel on expressway”. According to data available, NHAI has already transferred Rs 1,530 crore for land compensation. Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has earlier said, “The government is committed to decongesting Delhi. We have set an ambitious target. This is to complete the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressway in 400 days.” Earlier, the deadline for the project was set as two-and-a-half years. Alexandre Burrows Womens Jersey
NHAI looks to award highway projects of Rs 1 lakh cr in FY’17
The National Highways Authority of India expects to award projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore for constructing about 6,500 km of highways in the current fiscal. “We should be able to award projects for about 6,500 km and costing overall package size for about rupees one hundred thousand crore (in current fiscal),” National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Chairman Raghav Chandra told reporters here. The government is focussing on accelerating road construction and has taken a number of steps to double the pace at which highways are built in the country. As part of the measures, the road ministry last month asked all its wings to act quickly to resolve disputes ailing the industry, which includes a call for developers to transfer cases under the new Arbitration Act. When asked about arbitration payment norms, Chandra further said that NHAI has requisite funds for it. “The government has assured us full support on that count. NHAI will be making payments for arbitral awards and likewise all other organisations for their respective place and we have certain operating procedures so that these can go through seamlessly and expeditiously,” he added. The Union Cabinet in August allowed contractors to move to the new speedier arbitration process, approved release of 75 per cent of the amount in dispute against bank guarantee and provided for a conciliation board comprising independent domain experts in new contracts. The NHAI Chairman further said that NHAI has not received the formal detailing from the contractors who have these arbitral awards in their favour. “They need to submit bank guarantees and other such papers. So once they come in we will bring it on case by case basis,” he said. Replying to another question, he said that “for next year we are already ensuring that we have enough DPRs (Detailed Project Reports) ready.” There is a lot of work to be done but increasingly these projects are more complex and they require more of complex detailing before could be bid out, he said. “So it is more time consuming but we are certainly moving towards that. We are very positive about action on this front,” he said. When asked how many projects NHAI will award through hybrid annuity model in this fiscal, he said, “We have already awarded about 18 or 19 projects and we intend to bring more.” NHAI has also chalked out a pilot project to end daily traffic snarls on the Delhi-Gurgaon National highway with use of latest digital technologies, including Intelligent Traffic Management system (ITMS), surveillance cameras and other digital devices. “The pilot project of decongesting traffic flow on Delhi-Gurgaon highway will soon be initiated and following its success will be implemented in other parts of the country. To decongest traffic on this stretch of National Highway 8 latest traffic management will be adopted including automatic vehicle, stop line violation detection and sensors that gauge traffic and communicate with stop lights,” Chandra said. Larry Andersen Authentic Jersey
IEX average spot power rate hits 5-mth high in Sept
The average spot power price at Indian Energy Exchange touched a five-month high of Rs 2.43 in September due to higher demand, particularly from industrial units, indicating buoyancy in the manufacturing sector. “The spot price of electricity has been on a slightly higher side in September due to high demand, particularly from industrial units,” an IEX official told . An expert said this is an indication that there is buoyancy in the manufacturing sector, which will eventually push the economic growth this fiscal. Yesterday, the the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected India’s growth rate in 2016 and 2017 at 7.6 per cent, up from its earlier projection of 7.4 per cent. The average power price was recorded at Rs 2.91 per unit in April this year. It was on the lower side at Rs 2.32, Rs 2.31, Rs 2.16 and Rs 2.17 in May, June, July and August, respectively. The figure went up again to Rs 2.43 per unit in September this year, the highest in the last five months. IEX, in a statement, said the IEX Day-Ahead Market traded 3,630 million units (MUs) in September, the highest ever monthly trade since its inception in 2008. On a daily average basis, 121 MUs were traded, 9 per cent increase over 111 MUs traded last month (August). The open access consumers accounted for about 60 per cent of volume traded while the rest was on account of distribution companies. With average daily sell bids at 8,719 MW and purchase bids at 6,109 MW, the market remained buyer-friendly. The Market Clearing Price (MCP) for the month was very competitive at Rs 2.43 per unit even though overall demand for power was high, IEX said. On September 8, 2016, the highest ever peak demand of 156 GW was recorded in the country. The average Area Clearing Prices (ACP) on the exchange varied to Rs 2.73 per unit from Rs 2.35 across regions. Overall, nearly three MUs were lost due to congestion on a daily average basis. Import of power, especially in the northern region, remained affected due to constraints on the inter-state transmission network. The uniform rate prevailed on four days – September 1, 3, 4 and 12, in line with the One Nation, One Grid and One Price motto of the government. KKS ARD Tomas Nosek Womens Jersey
Dubai airport sets new record
Dubai International Airport has set a record of 7.7 million passengers in August, with India being the top destination country accounting for over 9 lakh travellers, according to a monthly traffic report. It has surpassed the previous record achieved in July. India remained the top destination country (9,24,256 passengers), followed by the UK (584,508 passengers) and Saudi Arabia (535,280 passengers). Passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport (DXB) reached 7,727,105 compared to 7,282,256 in the corresponding month last year, an increase of 6.1 per cent. The year to date traffic totalled 55,850,353 passengers, up 6.9 per cent compared to 52,264,223 in first eight months of 2015. Nick Castellanos Jersey
‘PM vision is to make air travel affordable for all’
Union minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha said the government wants to make air travel affordable for all by introducing a low-fare regime. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a vision: ‘Hawai chappal pahanne wale hawai yatra karenge’ (even people wearing hawai chappal [slippers] could travel by air),” said Sinha while inaugurating the SpiceJet direct daily flight to Kolkata and New Delhi from Gorakhpur here on Tuesday. “Low cost air travel will hasten the pace of development in the region. The vision of the Prime Minister is to enhance air connectivity in the country and make it affordable for common man,” said the minister. “Modi government believes in ‘sabka sath, sabka vikas’. Inclusive growth is the key to real development and air connectivity will enhance the chances of development and prosperity in the region,” Sinha added. He also thanked SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh for providing low cost air fare to the people. Pat Lafontaine Authentic Jersey
Qualifying norms to bid for Nagpur airport eased
As bids under request for qualification (RFQ) to rope in a private partner for developing Nagpur airport are expected to be received on October 6, a number of conditions have now been eased. The bidders now need not attach a certificate issued by concerned authorities like directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA), statutory auditors, or other concerned agencies certifying their claim on prior experience, which is a key criterion. The airport is currently run by Mihan India Limited (MIL), a joint venture between state government and Airports Authority of India (AAI). Under the RFQ, bidders are shortlisted for further taking part in the tender. Originally, the bids were to be invited on the basis of an upfront amount payable by the private company as well as a percentage share of revenue. Now the bids will be solely on the basis of percentage of revenue to be shared with MIL. The sharing will continue for 30 years. Moreover, the period is extendable. The other amendments mainly relate to the applicants’ experience in operations and maintenance of international airport, cross holding among bidders and assurance of credit line-up. Under the original document, the applicant needed to have a background of running an international airport as per the meaning provided by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The condition has been done away with. An official in MIL said earlier the RFQ document was drawn on the basis of Navi Mumbai airport. The interested parties had requested that the standard format issued by the planning commission should be adopted, especially for the experience clause. The plea was accepted. Alex Okafor Womens Jersey
Intra-state air service launched in Rajasthan
The first flight of an intra-state air service from Jaipur to Udaipur via Jodhpur was launched on Tuesday from here. Rajasthan’s Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje along with Gopaldas Ji Maharaj of Dadu Dayal sect flagged off a 9-seater aircraft of Supreme Airlines from Sanganer Airport State Hangar to Jodhpur. “Bikaner and Kota too would soon be connected by air,” Raje said speaking on the occasion. She said the state achieved another milestone on Monday when Scoot Airlines of Singapore started direct flight from Jaipur to Singapore. The state government has tied up with Supreme Transport Organisation Pvt. Ltd. to operate air services between different cities in the state. A state government statement said that in the first phase, flights have been launched from Jaipur to Jodhpur and Udaipur. For both these flights, minimum airfare has been fixed at Rs 3,499 per passenger. “Afterwards flights would be operated from other cities as well,” a civil aviation department official said. Matt Nieto Womens Jersey
Air India to lease turboprop planes to add wings to regional connectivity scheme
To ensure that the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government’s ambitious regional connectivity scheme (RCS) does not turn out to be a damp squib, state-owned Air India plans to lease five turboprop planes—having 40 to 70 seats—by March next year. The carrier is expected to deploy these planes on unserved and underserved routes the RCS plans to bring to the national aviation grid. According to a senior Air India executive who requested anonymity, the government is now banking on the national carrier as private carriers are yet to commit to join the RCS scheme which is aimed to bring air travel to remote areas of the country. At present, the national carrier has five 70-seater ATR 72-600 aircraft, three 48-seater ATR 42-320 turboprop planes and three CRJ700 planes—all on dry lease. It also has 66 narrow-body planes which largely cater to domestic routes and some nearby foreign destinations, and 41 wide-body aircraft, bringing the total count to 118. The planes to be acquired will be on dry lease, wherein only aircraft is provided by the lessor. However, if crew is also provided by the lessor, then it is called a wet lease. In May this year, Air India chairman and managing director Ashwani Lohani said the Air India Group will add 100 planes to its current fleet in the next four years by leasing them. “We have experienced this in the past as well and this is how aviation has grown in India. First, Air India starts flying to any remote area in the country. We (Air India) create demand and private carriers follow,” said the official. As per the proposed contours, the viability gap funding (VGF) will be available for three years for airlines flying under RCS, followed by a two-year cooling-off period. It will be limited to nine seats for a 12-seater aircraft and a maximum of 40 seats for larger aircraft. Another Air India executive, who also did not want to be named, said the airline is in talks with various lessors for dry lease of around five small aircraft. Rougned Odor Authentic Jersey
‘Among best’ in world, Indian airports flunk safety test
In a report that is certain to have rattled India’s Civil Aviation authorities, global oversight body International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has given India significantly lower safety ranking than its neighbours such as Pakistan and Sri Lanka in its safety audit report of 2015. Surprisingly, while on the one hand Delhi’s International Airport has been tagged as one of the “best airports” in the world, ICAO safety report reveals a different picture for Indian airports in terms of “Effective Implementation” (EI) in Legislation, Air Navigation, Accident Investigation, Licensing and Organisation. In terms of Accident Investigation, i.e. an aircraft sustaining damage or structural failure during flight operation, EI is 34.26 per cent in India whereas Sri Lanka and Pakistan have scored 90.72 per cent and 87.5 per cent respectively. Notably, Effective Implementation of Legislation in India stands at just 50 per cent, which is again very low as compared to China and other neighbouring countries. When asked about the basis on which this audit report was prepared, Anthony Philibin, Chief Communication Officer of the Secretary General, ICAO said that under its Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP), ICAO confirms a Significant Safety Concern (SSC) with respect to a country’s oversight resources and procedures. When this occurs, the state in question is given a maximum of 15 days to undertake mitigating measures and implement a suitable Corrective Action Plan (CAP) to resolve the SSC and conform to required standards. India’s Effective Implementation of Navigation Services as per ICAO standards is 68.75 per cent while that of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and China is 75, 84.38 and 87.11 respectively far outstripping India’s performance. In Effective implementation of Organisation and Accidental Investigation, India scored a relatively poor 63.64 and 45.74 percent, according the world body’s safety audit. Matthias Farley Jersey