Demonetisation: National Highway Authority of India forgoes toll worth about Rs 1,238 crore
The National Highway Authority of India would suffer an income loss of Rs 1,238 crore due to suspension of toll collection on highways till December 2 post demonetisation, Parliament was informed on Thursday. Post demonetisation of currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000, government has suspended user fee collection on National Highways with effect from November 9, 2016 (17:30 hrs), Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways P Radhakrishnan said in a written reply to Lok Sabha. NHAI issued necessary instructions to concessionaries, including BOT, OMT operators, and the commuters have been allowed to travel through the user fee plazas without paying any fee from November 9, 2016 (17:30 hrs) to December 2 (midnight), he added. “The average toll collection per day is Rs 51.59 crore from the fee plazas under NHAI, which is not accruing to the Government with effect from November 9, 2016 (17:30 hrs),” the Minister informed the House. Taking into account exemption till December 2 (midnight), the income loss to NHAI due to suspension of toll collection on highways is be around Rs 1,238 crore. In a separate reply, Radhakrishnan said: “Government will suitably compensate the toll operators for loss incurred due to suspension of fee collection.” The decision was taken to ensure smooth traffic flow across all National Highways and provide relief to the cash-strapped people lining up outside banks and ATMs after Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were scrapped. The government had announced its decision to keep the toll collection in abeyance till November 11 mid-night, which was later extended to November 14, 18, 24 and later to December 2. Pavol Demitra Jersey
Anjan Mukhopadhyay appointed executive director at Bhel
Anjan Mukhopadhyay, 58, has been appointed as the executive director of power sector at Bharat Heavy Electricals’ eastern region, with effect from 24th November, 2016. Prior to this, he served as general manager at the same division. An Electrical engineer from Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology-Shibpur, Mukhopadhyay started his career in BHEL Haridwar unit as an Trainee Engineer in 1981 and has more than 35 years of professional experience in having handled diverse functions in BHEL. Production, technical services, total service solution, project management, construction management & execution in different BHEL manufacturing unit and power sector sites. Under his leadership, eastern region in BHEL created new benchmarks in project execution. He was instrumental in commissioning of the first 500 MW unit of WBPDCL successfully. According to a statement released by Bhel, during his stint at the power division, he has been instrumental in effectively coordinating and collaborating with all organization units of BHEL in order to achieve financial and physical turnover, cash collection, capacity addition, technical and commercial closure and various other targets. He has effectively contributed in order to achieve continuous improvement for the region in all the four perspectives — financial, customer, internal operations and learning and innovations over the years.
Kerala State Electricity Board confident of tackling power crisis in the state
Though the new power minister, M M Mani, has been hinting at the possibility of power restrictions in the coming days, top Kerala State Electricity Board officials say that the situation is not that bad. According to the officials, the chances of a load shedding or any other form of major power restrictions were remote now. “It’s true that the power scenario across the country is bad at present. Kerala, being a state mostly dependent on power generated outside the state, will obviously suffer in the event of even a mild turmoil in the national power scene. But the situation, as of now, has not aggravated to a position that would force the board to impose load shedding or power cuts,” said an official. Read More: Power Min to nudge states for cheaper energy to powerlooms Sources said, the repair work in the Moolamattom power station was progressing satisfactorily and the work on the penstock valves would be completed by December 6. Three of the six generators in KSEB’s biggest hydel station were out of action after a leakage was detected in the penstock pipe that carry water to the generators. “The present crisis began with the central allocation from the Talcher power plant in Odisha coming down. One unit in Koodankulam atomic power plant is also out. The board is also not getting the power we have contracted with a private power generator. All this have contributed to a daily power deficit up to 500 MW,” said a board director. “However, we have made arrangements for purchase of power from outside the state. There will be price difference, but we are confident of facing the crisis without power cuts or load shedding,” he added. Meanwhile, the state government is learnt to have given KSEB the go ahead to honour long term power purchase agreements, the procedural correctness of which was questioned by the state power regulatory commission. The regulator had earlier refused to fully accept the agreement reached between KSEB and various power generating companies for purchase of 865 MW power for 25 years from December 2016. The annual purchase of 6,440 Million Units (MU) power at an average rate of Rs 4.11 per unit would come to around Rs 2,650 crore. It would total to Rs 66,225 crore on completion of the 25 years of agreement period. Bryan Witzmann Authentic Jersey
Essar Power commissions Hazira unit, completes 270 MW project
Essar Power today said its subsidiary at Hazira in Gujarat has commissioned the second and last unit of 135 mw, making the 270-mw project fully operational now. The company said commissioning was done in a record 53 days – from IBR hydrotest to final synchronisation – making it among the swiftest in the industry. The first unit was commissioned in July last year. With this, the 270-mw multi-fuel power plant, which is 100 per cent captive to Essar Steel Hazira, is now fully operational. The plant runs on multiple fuels, like coal (both domestic and imported) and corex gas, simultaneously. Read More: Essar Power expects to turn profitable this year Essar Power has a target capacity of 6,100 mw, and this commissioning makes 80 per cent, or 4,840 mw, operational now. On the commissioning, company Chief Executive K V B Reddy said over the last two years, increased coal availability as well as strong operational efficiencies have helped improve performance significantly. Essar Power has operational capacity of 4,840 mw, of which 3,240 mw is coal-based and 1,600 mw gas-based. Its operating plants are located at Mahan in Chhatisgarh and at Hazira, Salaya and Vadinar (all in Gujarat). Troy Aikman Authentic Jersey
KCR tells power staff to give up Dec 6 stir plan in Telangana
Chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) on Thursday instructed officials to examine the possibilities of regularising all the outsourced employees working in Telangana Transco, Genco and Discoms in a phased manner. Accordingly, KCR asked the electricity employees’ unions to call off their proposed strike on December 6 and invited them for talks. Interestingly, only 24 hours ago, he told officials to act sternly with the employees who threatened to go on strike. During a review meeting held at Pragati Bhavan, the chief minister felt that the outsourced employees who have been working for several years on nominal salaries should be regularized on humanitarian grounds and asked officials to prepare guidelines in this regard. He also asked the unions to drop their proposed stir and meet energy minister K Jagadeeshwar Reddy on Friday and sort out the problems. In this context, the CM recalled that salaries of the employees working in electricity department were increased substantially in the past and salaries of the outsourced employees were also hiked. The state government is also ready to amicably settle all the issues raised by the employees, he said. Telangana Genco and Transco CMD Prabhakar Rao and other officials brought to the notice of the chief minister the demands of electricity employees and outsourced workers. They informed the chief minister that the outsourced workers were rendering services in the management of sub stations, power lines, power plants as well as handling administrative work. However, the chief minister reiterated that employees working in the power sector could solve their problems through discussions with the government and hence there is no need for them to go on a strike. The chief minister also asked the employees not to fall prey to the strike call given on political considerations and not to put general public to inconvenience by going on a strike. Nick Fairley Authentic Jersey
Spot power may get costly as CERC proposes hiked transmission charges
The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has proposed a hike in transmission charges by 1.35 times, which could hurt the growing market for spot or short-term transaction of power. States and open access industrial consumers are increasingly shifting to short-term power purchase due to uncertainty in power demand. If approved, they might have to face increased charges, which would be similar to long-term power rates. Lately, the central government has also been promoting the spot market, as increased competition reduces cost of power. While the tariff quoted in the long-term power purchase agreement has touched Rs 3.9-5.5 per unit in the past three years, the spot price has gone down to Rs 2.16 per unit during the same period. While private players and some states have been active in the spot market, NTPC has also started selling un-requisitioned surplus power at the exchanges. The commission is of the view that increasing short-term transaction of power is leading to congestion in the grid and also affecting the transmission planning, which is typically for long-term transactions. It has come to this conclusion after submissions from the Central Transmission Utility (CTU), also known as Power Grid Corporation of India. The volume of short-term transactions has increased to 63.96 billion units (BUs) in 2014-15, from 24.69 BUs in 2008-09. However, the prices of electricity of short-term transactions has come down to Rs 2.5 per unit, from about Rs 7.29 per unit during 2008-09. CERC has expressed its concerns that generators may not apply for long-term agreement (LTA) and evacuate power under short-term open access (STOA) and/or medium-term open access (MTOA). “It is likely that there are less long-term power purchase agreements, leading to lack of LTAs and inefficient transmission planning,” said CERC in its draft regulations, dated October 28, 2016. The regulations were open for comments till November 25. “There are a number of petitions and applications before the commission, wherein the generators are relinquishing their LTA quantum but at the same time evacuating power under STOA/MTOA markets. This causes burden of higher transmission charges on other long-term customers. This scenario is likely to lead to under-building of transmission capacity thereby leading to instances of congestions,” CERC observed in its detailed regulations. The power sector, which has been hailing the shift to short-term or day-ahead power market, is opposing this sudden change. The industry is of the view that in the current scenario when discoms are trying to reduce power tariff in a bid to reduce losses, the short-term market creates competition and helps in decreasing power rates. Kwon Alexander Authentic Jersey
Team from Airports Authority of India visits advance landing grounds
A team of officials from Airports Authority of India, Indian Air Force, Director General of Civil Aviation and Bureau of Aviation Security, led by Arunachal Pradesh civil aviation director Repo Ronya, visited the advance landing grounds (ALG) at Aalo and Pasighat. Darius Philon Authentic Jersey
New model to forecast fog over airports
To get a better grip on forecasting fog, a series of organisations has partnered with the airport authorities here to develop a system that can warn of fog at least 6-24 hours in advance, calculate its severity, and estimate when it is likely to lift enough for flights to take off and land safely. Predicting a fog is a daunting challenge the world over, primarily because a range of meteorological conditions contribute to it, and it can play out differently even within a city. While the immediate utility would be for aviation, officials associated with the exercise said if the underlying science of the fog-prediction system was perfected, it would be able to warn of extreme pollution events such as the severe smog that enveloped Delhi this year after Diwali. About 30 instruments have been installed abutting one of the runways in Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, said Madhavan Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, and the first forecasts would be available in January. Authentic Jersey
Warning Issued To Private Jets Over Being Misused To Fly Banned Notes
India has threatened to punish private jet operators that fly to small and remote airports without police clearance as Prime Minister Narendra Modi tries to plug loopholes in his campaign against unaccounted money. A group of private jet operators, which counts tycoon Anand Mahindra’s Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. and the billionaire Poonawalla family’s aviation firm as members, said the move came after an “isolated case” of not following procedure, and aircraft owned by its members follow standard rules for security checks. Modi stunned the nation on Nov. 8 by invalidating 500 rupee ($7.3) and 1,000 rupee notes in an effort to force unaccounted cash into the formal economy, setting a Dec. 30 deadline for the money to be deposited with banks. Two weeks later, India Today reported that a private jet was used to transport banned currency to the country’s northeast, where residents enjoy certain tax benefits. The Huffington Post reported that at least four private jets stuffed with cash flew to a small town in the northeastern state of Nagaland. Patrick Omameh Authentic Jersey
UDAN scheme Rs 8500 levy: Indigo, GoAir, SpiceJet, Jet, others take Centre to Delhi High Court
The Central government’s plan to create a fund under the UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme by levying Rs 7500 to Rs 8500 per flight operated by Indian airlines; to develop airports in smaller towns and cities, was challenged in the Delhi High Court today when the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) filed a petition so as to know the government’s stand on the matter. A notice was issued to Ministry of Civil Aviation, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) by a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal who sought their replies by December 21; as the levy will be chargable from December 1. Meanwhile, the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) explains that the scheme allows them to pass on the levy to the passengers, which they regret imposing as it is not a fee for which their airlines are rendering services to the passengers. The FIA represents air carriers like Indigo, GoAir, SpiceJet and Jet Airways, have sought suppressing of the October 21 notification and the November 9 orders that declared the rates of levy and the categories of the scheduled flights on which they would be imposed. Brandon Williams Authentic Jersey