Delhi-Meerut Expressway may be allowed: Expert panel tells NGT
The permission to NHAI to build a bridge and its approach roads across the river for the Delhi- Meerut Expressway should be allowed to help ease traffic congestion, an expert committee today told the National Green Tribunal. The Principal Committee, headed by Secretary of Ministry of Water Resources, told a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar that the “project may be allowed” subject to fulfilling of certain conditions including increasing the cost of monitoring during construction phase of bridge by nearly Rs 2.5 crore. The committee, constituted by the NGT for implementation of ‘Maili se Nirmal Yamuna Revitalisation Project 2017’, has recommended that project proponent should save “as many trees” as possible and no wetland area on the floodplains should be disturbed during the construction phase. The Principal Committee also comprises Special Secretary of MoEF, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Water Resources, Delhi Chief Secretary, DDA, Delhi Jal Board, municipal corporations, Commissioner and others. Professors C R Babu, A K Gosain, Brij Gopal and A A Kazmi of IIT Roorkee are also members of the Principal Committee, which also said that strong iron marshes of 8 inch height should be erected along the proposed bridge to stop the public from throwing solid waste in the Yamuna. The matter is listed for next hearing on November 22. The submissions came in response to National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) plea seeking NGT’s nod for building of bridges and approach roads over Yamuna. In its plea, NHAI had said that currently the route between Delhi and Meerut (NH-58) had frequent jams causing lot of inconvenience to traffic between the two cities and the project will reduce the time of travel to 40-45 minutes from three hours at present. NHAI had moved NGT in view of a 2015 order saying that construction of “new barrages and roads, railway and metro bridges and embankments and bunds” should not be permitted. However, in exceptional cases, “a critical impact of their potential impact on flood aggravation and environmental clearances should be made mandatory,” it had said. The Delhi-Meerut Expressway will be built through public -private-partnership mode and slated to be operational by March 2018. The project starts from National Highway-2 at Ring Road in Delhi and ends at Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. Darren Woodson Authentic Jersey
India Infra funding needs Rs 8.6 lakh crore a year: Crisil
India’s infrastructure funding requirement is gargantuan as it needs Rs 8.6 lakh crore per annum, rating agency Crisil said today. “The funding requirement to build India’s infrastructure is gargantuan. Crisil estimates the need at Rs 43 lakh crore over the next 5 years, which translates into roughly Rs 8.6 lakh crore per year,” Crisil said in a statement. It said, 70 percent of the Rs 43 trillion will be required in just three sectors — power, transportation and urban infrastructure. In power, generation (thermal and renewable) will continue to account for the largest share of the investments, followed by transmission, whereas in the transportation sector, investments will be driven towards building national highways and state roads. It said, given the issues of asset-liability mismatches and group exposure regulations of the Reserve Bank of India, banks alone cannot fulfill the needs. Banks also need to raise large amounts of equity capital at a time when their profitability has diminished which, in turn, reduces their ability to raise capital through internal accrual, it added. Crisil said, “There is a strong need for innovative structures and credit enhancement mechanisms which reduce the risk in infrastructure projects and make them more palatable to investors.” The report highlighted some of innovations such as partial guarantees and future flow securitisation besides some sector-specific instruments such as Green Bonds for renewable energy, which, though nascent, is an emerging option. It said building infrastructure is a capital-intensive process with large initial costs and long gestation periods. Although banks have traditionally been the largest financiers, their increasing exposure to infrastructure projects poses the risk of asset-liability mismatches because the investment horizon is typically long, it said. “Crisil believes the corporate bond market is better placed to play an active role in funding given its long-term investment horizon. However, as bond investors are risk averse, credit enhancement mechanisms are essential to bridge the gap between their low risk appetite and the higher risk associated with infrastructure projects,” it said. Crisil said that it believed that almost three-fourth of investment (73 er cent) will be funded through debt, with banks remaining the largest source of finance (48 percent). Following the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) easing of norms, external commercial borrowings (ECBs) are expected to be another large source of funds (16.5 percent of debt) with nearly Rs 5.2 trillion expected to flow in through this route. The balance Rs 11.2 trillion (36 percent of debt) is expected to come through bond issuances, the report said. Gale Sayers Womens Jersey
NHAI invites bids for proj reports for 15,000 km eco corridors
Setting the ball rolling for its programme to develop 44 economic corridors for faster movement of freight, government has invited bids for preparations of detailed project reports for 15,000 km of such corridors under the first phase. The government plans to develop 35,000 km of highways under the Economic Corridor project which is estimated to cost Rs 3 lakh crore. “Consultants are being tasked to carry out critical examination of existing logistic infrastructure … and 44 freight corridors (Economic Corridors), Inter corridors and feeder routes to reduce cost and time of freight movement,” Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement. It said under ‘Logistic Efficiency Enhancement Programme’, these these are proposed to be developed by taking an end-to-end corridor view, rather than stretch-by-stretch road construction view to ensure consistent infrastructure along the corridor, as per discussion between NHAI and government. “As a first step towards this task, preparation of DPRs is being undertaken by NHAI. In the first phase, DPRs of identified 15000 km is proposed to be prepared” for which NHAI has invited bids, it said. “Bids have been invited in 45 packages of about 300 Km length each,” the statement said. Jason Kidd Womens Jersey
Indian Oil Adani Gas snaps PNG supply at medical college in Kerala
Indian Oil Adani Gas Pvt Ltd. (IOAGPL) snapped the supply of piped natural gas (PNG) to commercial establishments at Ernakulam Medical College on Tuesday as authorities refused to pay the security deposit. PNG was supplied to three hostels and a Kudumbashree canteen at the college. However, supply of PNG supply to residences were not disrupted. But, medical college authorities said that IOAGPL had earlier said that no extra charges would be levied on them other than usage charges. “The company, while establishing the connections, had publicly declared that no extra charges would be levied. Last month, they issued a notice asking us to pay a sum of Rs 92,000 as security deposit,” said principal of government school of nursing Thankamony T Alex. The canteen was asked to pay Rs 1.58 lakh as deposit. The supply, which was stopped around 2pm, created a panic at both hostels and the canteen. Lunch was delayed. One of the hostels had already reverted from PNG to LPG few months ago citing more expenses. College authorities received two letters on November 4 and November 10. The last letter had warned of disconnection in case of failing to pay the amount. “The expense of the mess is met by pooling cash from students. Our students are from economically-backward and middleclass families. For them, it would be a burden to pay the huge bills. We had asked the hostels to switch over to LPG various times after we found PNG expensive,” said Thankamony. Earlier, a medical college authorities met IOAGPL officials – including Ajay Pillai, deputy general manager to discuss the issue. “We had agreed to seek the government’s opinion. IOAGPL agreed to wait until government took a decision. Now, their move to end supply is nothing short of arrogance,” said principal of Government Medical College, Ernakulam, Sreekala VK. “We had chosen PNG as they told us that this would be cheaper. But from the first month they added an extra amount of Rs 6,000 every month as additional tax. Now they have imposed another huge amount,” said Sudha Raveendran, a member of the Kudumbashree canteen. Ajay Pillai claimed that the firm was affected as the parties had not paid the amount. “We had been telling them to pay the amount. A final decision on resuming supply has not been taken,” he said. Stacy McGee Womens Jersey
Proposal to construct 2 Indian Oil Corporation terminals in Karnataka opposed
Residents of Aligadda are opposing the move by the port department to hand over 2 acres of land to the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) which wants to build two terminals in the area. The port department has issued notice to 12 persons to vacate the area. The IOC, which already has storage tanks in the area, has requested the port authorities to allot additional land in Aligadda on a 10-year lease to supply oil to ships in the INS Kadamba Naval Base. Aligadda is situated next to Karwar port. Preetam Masurkar, who is leading the opposition, told TOI that the IOC can use the additional land which is with the Navy to build the oil terminals. “The Indian Navy acquired 11,300 acres of land in Karwar for Project Seabird. Hundreds acres of the acquired land are still unused. So why does the OIC want to evacuate 12 more families?” he asked. The port department acquired the land, where the IOC terminals are proposed, for the development of Karwar port about four decades ago. But the development of Karwar port was halted due to Project Seabird. “The port department had stated in an affidavit in the high court that the land acquisition process is not yet complete. No awards were given to the families. This being the case, the port department cannot acquire the same land for another purpose,” Masurkar said. Local residents say that they have already raised the issue with the port department officials. They are worried due to reports that the administration will vacate houses in the area by Saturday. Department officials said that the district administration has been informed about objection from the residents. The assistant commissioner has convened a meeting on November 28 to discuss the issue. Representatives of the IOC, Navy and local residents will participate in the meeting. The final decision will be taken by the district administration, said a port department official. Track Order Authentic Jersey
Power distribution reforms: All is not well for states’ tariff revision
The centre’s power distribution reform scheme Ujjwal Discom Assuance Yojana (UDAY) may have spread fast across states but the progress of timely and proper tariff revision in the current financial year seems to have been moderate at best across states. For 2016-17, State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) in 20 states (out of overall 29 states) have issued tariff orders so far, signifying moderate progress. “This is given that utilities are required to file the tariff petitions for 2016-17 by November 30, 2015 and tariff orders are required to be issued by the end of March 2016 as per the terms of the tariff regulations. The recent assembly elections in the states of Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal delayed the tariff determination process for current fiscal,” said Sabyasachi Majumdar, Senior Vice President at ratings agency ICRA. While SERCs in Bihar, Haryana and Odisha have not approved any tariff revision, the SERCs in the state of Gujarat and Punjab have approved a marginal tariff reduction of 1.3 per cent and 1 per cent respectively for certain categories of customers. The state regulator in Chhattisgarh has approved a steep tariff hike of 15.7 per cent for the year in order to provide for the past year true-up and effect of an earlier judgment by the Appellate Tribunal of Electricity (APTEL) on all the state power utilities. Also, SERCs in Andhra Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh have approved a nominal tariff hike of less than 1 per cent for the year. In the case of other 12 states, the extent of tariff revision ranges between 3.0 per cent and 8.8 per cent. Similar to the trend in the last financial year, the average tariff hike remained modest at 4 per cent for current fiscal across the 20 states. The process of filing tariff petition by the state-owned distribution utilities in Punjab and UP and subsequent tariff determination has also witnessed delays. While the utilities were required to file tariff petitions for FY2017 by November 2015, discoms in UP filed their petitions in March 2016 as against the Punjab discom, which filed its petition as per schedule. Further, while the tariff orders should ideally have been released by end-March 2016 as per the tariff regulations, the actual issuance happened in July 2016 and August 2016 for utilities in Punjab and UP respectively. Interestingly, both the states are participating in the UDAY scheme, which required a tariff revision in the range of 5-6 per cent for 2016-17. However, the actual tariff revisions allowed by SERCs in both the states were lower — at 3.18 per cent for UP and -0.98 per cent for Punjab for the year. The respective SERCs cited avoidance of tariff shock to the consumers as the primary reason for the modest tariff hikes. “The UP discoms have signed an agreement with the centre and the state government for participation in the UDAY scheme, as part of which, the utilities are required to improve their operational parameters in line with the agreed requirements. The tariff hike of 3.18 per cent approved for FY2017 is lower than the 5.75 per cent assumed in the UDAY scheme. Further, given that the distribution loss level for the discoms continue to remain higher than the stipulated levels, the success of the UDAY scheme will remain contingent on the ability of the utilities to adhere to the targets stipulated,” Majumdar said. Earlier, SERCs in 26 of the 29 states had issued tariff orders for the last financial year signifying reasonable progress. However, delays were observed in the issue of tariff orders for 2015-16 in states such as Assam, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, UP and West Bengal. Also, tariff orders were not issued for last fiscal in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Tripura. Tomas Hyka Womens Jersey
Power purchase pacts signed through transparent tenders, says Telangana minister
Coming down heavily on AP government for not scheduling Telangana’s share of power from the Krishnapatnam and Hinduja projects, state energy minister G Jagadish Reddy said all power purchases so far were made through transparent tender process. He said that it was AP government’s reluctance to supply power to Telangana that forced the state to go for power purchases from private generators. He challenged TDP leaders to prove their allegations over power purchases by the state. “After AP refused to schedule power to Telangana, we were forced to call for tenders. We purchased power at cheap rates compared to AP, which was buying at a much higher cost. Due to KCR’s vision, the state has come out of power problems and is racing ahead in power generation,” said the minister. Defending the purchase of sub-critical technology boilers from BHEL, the minister pointed that more than 32 thermal units are under construction across the country with similar technology. He said the Union environment ministry gave no-objection for Bhadradi Thermal Power Project, if it is completed during the 13th Finance Commission period. Even the Rayalaseema Thermal Power Plant is being constructed with same technology, he said. Raising objection to allegations made by TDP leaders, the minister asked them to prevail over AP government to share ‘rightful’ power to Telangana. He also thanked employees of Transco and Genco for “their unstinted efforts to ensure uninterrupted power supply to consumers in the state.” Josh McCown Womens Jersey
‘Quantum jump in power consumption in Bihar in past eleven years’
Bihar registered a quantum jump in consumption of electricity during successive regimes in the last 11 years . The annual per capita consumption of electricity rose to 258 units in 2016 from merely 70 units in 2005 when Kumar became CM for the first time. The peak demand of electricity rose to 3,769MW in 2016 from 700MW in 2005. The transmission line almost doubled in Bihar in the last 11 years — from 5,000km in 2005 to 9,696km in 2016. The transmission evacuation capacity went up from 1,000MW in 2005 to 6,772MW this year while the number of consumers increased from 17.31 lakh to 81 lakh during the period. These figures were made officially public at a function at which CM Nitish Kumar launched the state government’s ‘Har Ghar Bijli Lagataar’ (uninterrupted electricity to each home) scheme here on Tuesday. “Electrification work is going on in each district,” he said. The CM said the per capita consumption of electricity was merely 70 units when he came to power in 2005. “It rose to 120 units in 2012 when, addressing the Independence Day function, I promised people I would not seek votes if power scenario did not better. I asked for votes in 2014 general election only when the power sector reported improvement,” he said. Making an oblique reference to PM Narendra Modi’s poll-time rhetorics asking ‘bijli aayee, bijli aayee’ from people at public rallies, the Bihar CM said people, who tried to make electricity an election issue during the 2015 assembly polls, could not succeed because improvement was there for everyone to see. Kumar did not name Modi though. Eddie Giacomin Authentic Jersey
Cathay Pacific plans to increase air cargo services to India
Cathay Pacifc Airways, the Hong Kong-based aviation company, is planning to increase the frequency of its cargo flights from the city to India, given the spurt in business. Currently, the carrier operates from six Indian cities and there are 25 freighter departures every week. “At this moment, we plan to optimise our network base in India and want to increase our frequency here,” Mark Sutch, Cathay Pacific’s General Manager (cargo sales and marketing) was quoted as saying by the PTI. During the first nine months of calendar year 2016, the airline’s cargo business grew about 8 percent in volume terms, up from 4 to 5 percent in the past. The carrier provides freight services from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Alexei Emelin Womens Jersey
Parking made free at airports across India till November 21
If dealing with the cash crutch due to demonetisation was getting to your nerves there’s some relief coming your way. Parking at all Indian airports will be free until November 21, declared the civil aviation ministry. MoS, Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha took to social media website Twitter to write, “We heard you! To facilitate smooth movement, collection of parking charges at all airports suspended till midnight of 21 Nov! #AirSewa.” This move comes just days before the winter session of the Parliament behind where all opposition parties are expected to question the Modi government. The ministry in a statement said, “The Ministry of Civil Aviation has decided to suspend the collection of parking charges at all airports till midnight of November 21, 2016. This has been done in order to facilitate the smooth movement of passengers.” Matt Calvert Womens Jersey