195-km super expressway to link Delhi, Jaipur
The land acquisition process has started for a new ‘super expressway’ the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is building between Delhi and Jaipur that will reduce the distance between the two cities by around 40 km. The new speedway will, however, not originate in Delhi. It will branch out from the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway near the Kherki Daula toll plaza in Gurgaon and pass through seven districts before terminating at the Rajasthan capital. Its total length will be 195 km, as opposed to around 235km that one needs to travel to get to Jaipur from the same point, with a main carriageway of six lanes (three on each side). The road, officials said, will be fully access-controlled. It is, however, unlikely to bring the commuting time between Gurgaon and Jaipur down to 90 minutes, as Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari had recently said while speaking of this ‘super expressway’ but will still cut by half or more the total commuting time to the Pink City. Officials said the ‘super expressway’ would make the Gurgaon-Jaipur journey possible in 120 minutes, which will be a feat no less remarkable, since at present, the journey takes anywhere between four and five hours, or even more if there is heavy traffic. The earlier plan was for a 226 km greenfield expressway starting near the Indira Gandhi International airport and terminating at Daulatpura in Jaipur. But the route was modified because of the cost factor. The expressway will now terminate at Chandwaji in Jaipur district. The new alignment has brought down its land requirement from 2,800 hectares to 1755.90 hectares. According to documents submitted by the Union environment ministry’s expert appraisal committee (EAC) for infrastructure projects, the ‘super expressway’ is expected to cost of Rs 6,530 crore to build. Its rehabilitation and resettlement cost is also a sizable Rs 5,000 crore as most of the land that needs to be acquired for the project is privately owned. “Land has been identified and the acquisition process has been initiated. There are two sections of the project in Haryana and Rajasthan. The acquisition process has started on the Haryana side,” said Ashok Sharma, project director, NHAI. The ‘super expressway’ will pass through 423 villages in seven districts — Gurgaon, Jhajjar, Rewari, Mahendergarh, Alwar, Sikar and Jaipur. Out of the 1755 hectares that need to be acquired, 360.65 hectares is government land, 1.22 hectares is part of a reserve forest area and 38 hectares are ‘protected forest’ land in Haryana and Rajasthan. Land will be acquired by NHAI. “The land use will be changed to Highway construction from agriculture, forest and settlement. There is no densely populated area along the proposed expressway. It is purely a virgin alignment and connectivity to built-up areas will be provided by underpasses and exit AND entry ramps,” mentions the feasibility report of the project. Ed Dickson Jersey
NITI to lend support in development of 10 big infrastructure projects
NITI Aayog will prepare a list of 10 big infrastructure projects that can be developed under the public private partnership (PPP) mode. The proposal to short list 10 big projects on priority basis was discussed during a meeting of NITI Aayog officials and representatives from various states on March 7, a senior government official said. Infrastructure is a top priority for the government and various efforts are already on to attract more investments into the sector, especially from foreign players. The official said NITI Aayog would identify “ten big infrastructure projects” across sectors which can be developed through the PPP mode. The list would be prepared after taking into consideration the details of such big projects that would be provided by the states in the coming weeks, he added. Further, he said that having a list of big projects would help in extending all possible “developmental support” to the states concerned on a priority basis. According to the official, the specific sectors where such projects can be pursued would be decided after collating information from the states. “NITI Aayog will provide its expertise in advising the states on developing infrastructure, especially big projects. This will also help in streamlining the process and ensure timely completion of big projects,” the official said. The government has allocated Rs 3.95 lakh crore for infrastructure development in the Union Budget 2017-18. In his Budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said the magnitude of investment in the space is bound to spur growth. Infrastructure is the thrust area of the government for efficiency, productivity and quality of life and approach was to spend more on infrastructure development, he had said in February. Bobby Clarke Womens Jersey
Gadkari wants more powers to NHAI, unhappy with project progress
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday said the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) should have more powers to fast-track road projects while expressing unhappiness over its overall performance. Gadkari said a proposal to enhance NHAI powers has already been sent to the Cabinet for approval. “We need to move on fast in NHAI. I am not happy with their targets,” the Road Transport and Highways Minister said at an event here. Fast-track projects The decision in this regard has been taken to fast-track projects, he said, adding, “We have to strengthen the power of NHAI and the Board… Our proposal is pending and we are expecting that the Cabinet will enhance the power of the NHAI. That will be useful for road construction.” Stating that even States PWDs were faring better than NHAI, Gadkari said, “This is not done. I am expecting at least ?10,000-crore worth of road construction from the NHAI. He further said that project delays were due to the “system” as there were so many committees to take decisions and eventually the projects suffer. “It is because of the system. Everywhere there are committees. You have to go to a particular committee for BOT (build-operate-transfer), then if there is no response then you have to go to another committee for EPC (engineering, procurement and construction),” he said. Enhancing the power of NHAI will help fast-track clearances to highway projects at a time when the government has fixed a target of building 40 km of roads a day. The move is aimed at empowering the NHAI board to clear all highway projects on its own instead of seeking clearances at various levels. The NHAI board at present proposes a highway project which is cleared by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) before Cabinet approval if the project amount is less than ?1,000 crore. For projects over ?1,000 crore, MoRTH forwards it to the Finance Ministry before Cabinet nod. The 11-member NHAI board consists of seven full-time members including the chairman besides four part-time members. The country has an ambitious highways construction target of 40-km a day. The current rate of construction is about 22 km a day. The government had awarded 9,655 km of highways construction until February out of a target of 25,000 km. It has also raised its construction target to 15,000 km as against 6,000 km constructed last year. Out of this, 6,467-km highway projects constructed till February. Rating agency ICRA has recently said that NHAI is likely to miss the target for awarding and execution of road projects by a “wide margin”. “Although the pace of execution increased by 17 per cent during the 8 months of FY 2017 (April-November) to 5.82 km/day from 4.96 km/day, during 8 months of FY 2016; it is just 27 per cent of target execution of 21.92 km/day. Chad Kelly Womens Jersey
MNRE receives Rs 10,239 cr from NCEF since FY’15
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has received Rs 10,239 crore from the National Clean Energy Fund in the three fiscals to 2016-17. “From FY 2014-15 up to the current financial year, i.e 2016-17, Rs 10,239.18 crore was allocated from the National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy,” Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. In addition to NCEF support, Rs 787.53 crore was received as Gross Budgetary Support in 2014-15 and 2015-16, he said. In 2014-15 and 2015-16, the allocation was fully utilised, Goyal said. During 2016-17, Rs 4,272 crore was provided from NCEF to the ministry. Of this an expenditure of Rs 3,282.30 crore has been incurred till March 15, 2017. For the next fiscal, the minister said, a budgetary allocation of Rs 5,341.70 crore has been made for the MNRE which will be sourced from NCEF. Haloti Ngata Womens Jersey
US bars electronics in cabin bags on non-stop flights from eight countries
The US government is temporarily barring passengers on certain flights originating in eight other countries from bringing laptops, iPads, cameras and most other electronics in carry—on luggage starting today. The reason for the ban was not immediately clear. US security officials would not comment. The ban was revealed yesterday in statements from Royal Jordanian Airlines and the official news agency of Saudi Arabia. A US official told The Associated Press the ban will apply to non-stop flights to the US from 10 international airports serving the cities of Cairo in Egypt; Amman in Jordan; Kuwait City in Kuwait; Casablanca in Morocco; Doha in Qatar; Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia; Istanbul in Turkey; and Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The ban was indefinite, said the official. A second US official said the ban will affect nine airlines in total, and the Transportation Security Administration will inform the affected airlines at 3 am Eastern time today. The officials were not authorised to disclose the details of the ban ahead of a public announcement and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Royal Jordanian said cellphones and medical devices were excluded from the ban. Everything else, the airline said, would need to be packed in checked luggage. Royal Jordanian said the electronics ban affects its flights to New York, Chicago, Detroit and Montreal. David Lapan, a spokesman for Homeland Security Department, declined to comment. The Transportation Security Administration, part of Homeland Security, also declined to comment. A US government official said such a ban has been considered for several weeks. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose the internal security discussions by the federal government. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly phoned lawmakers over the weekend to brief them on aviation security issues that have prompted the impending electronics ban, according a congressional aide briefed on the discussion. The aide was not authorised to speak publicly about the issue and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The ban would begin just before tomorrow’s meeting of the US—led coalition against the Islamic State group in Washington. A number of top Arab officials were expected to attend the State Department gathering. It was unclear whether their travel plans were related to any increased worry about security threats. Brian Jenkins, an aviation—security expert at the Rand Corp, said the nature of the security measure suggested that it was driven by intelligence of a possible attack. He added that there could be concern about inadequate passenger screening or even conspiracies involving insiders — airport or airline employees — in some countries. JuJu Smith-Schuster Jersey
Airlines improve connections between India and Asia Pacific
India’s Jet Airways and Singapore-based Jetstar Asia have announced plans for a codeshare agreement that will create a series of new travel opportunities between India and multiple Asian and Australian destinations, via Singapore. Jet will place its 9W flight code on Jetstar’s flights operating from Singapore to 11 destinations: Bangkok, Phuket, Perth, Darwin, Jakarta, Bali, Surabaya, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Hong Kong. Three of these – Darwin, Phuket and Penang – will be entirely new destinations for the Indian carrier. These services will connect at Singapore’s Changi Airport with Jet’s services to and from four Indian cities: Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru. Deion Sanders Authentic Jersey
Optimism pervades the Indian Aviation Industry
India has one of the fastest growing aviation industries in the world. We are growing at more than 20% annually. The Indian Aviation Infrastructure is definitely keeping pace with the growth. In fact in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore the infrastructure is already there, we need growth by way of more and more airlines flying to these airports. There are many airports in India which are not utilized fully. Also, we need to have some upgradations. When probed about the issue of capacity crunch in the industry and about the revival of the 400 plus airports and air strips, Mr. Goyal explains, “There is no capacity crunch. In fact there is an imbalance which needs to be rectified by integrated approach. The only way to revive the 400 plus unserved airports is to implement the scheme of regional connectivity which has been initiated by the Civil Aviation Ministry. Now the ball is in the court of the State Governments and the private entrepreneurs. They all need to come together in order to evolve a strategy for an integrated approach. I hope within the next 5 years, a lot of these small unutilized airports will become operative because of the excellent financial incentives in the new civil aviation policy.” The only way forward for functional and loss making airports is to build shopping malls and commercial complexes around the airport and also connect them with metro services so that airports become a hub of commercial activity, not only for the passengers but also for the nearby residents. Yes, PPP is the only way forward, not only for the Indian Aviation Industry and Air India but most of the public sector undertakings which are not making profits. Brandon Bolden Womens Jersey
Too bad Air India: FinMin pours cold water on SPVs for bad loans
The finance ministry is unlikely to sign on to the proposal for a ‘bad (debt) bank’, going by its response to some of the line ministries on similar proposals. The latest of those is the one to form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to house Air India’s (AI’s) debt. The finance ministry argues that debt of any entity must largely be serviced from its own resources, instead of expecting the government to pay for these. While the government is AI’s owner, the suggestion for it to take a haircut on behalf of the airline does not find favour. has proposed to house a major portion of its Rs 45,000 crore of debt in an SPV, to cleanse its balance sheet. A third of the loans were raised to finance the cost of aircraft acquisition; the rest are for working capital. The loan overhang and the cost of servicing it at Rs4,000 crore a year cripples the airlines’ ability to set aside money for investment in route expansion or upgrading of services. The proposal is leant to have got the support of the civil aviation ministry. Finance ministry officers have made their position clear through informal discussions with the aviation ministry. The ministry has said such bailouts will create a precedent for other stressed entities. AI is running a large operation and the ministry feels there is enough room for it to clear out its debt. AI’s proposal is similar to the one suggested for public sector banks to house their bad debts. HDFC Chairman, Deepak Parekh and Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian have also supported the setting up of one or more ‘bad banks’, to pull out non-performing loans from state-owned lenders. Subramanian has used the term ‘twin balance sheet problem’ to describe the issue. The bad debts cripple the ability of these banks to commit fresh credit to companies, while the companies which have run up the debt, starved of fresh investments, are unable to raise resources to service the debt. Denver Broncos Womens Jersey
Teams to check cyber security threat in power sector
The government has constituted Computer Emergency Response Teams to check cyber security threat in the power sector. “Government of India, in line with National Cyber Security Policy, 2013 has created sectoral Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) to mitigate cyber security threat in power systems,” Power Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha. The Centre has taken several steps to make power utilities and key stakeholders aware and take precautions against cyber threats. “For cyber security in power systems, four sectoral CERTS, CERT (Transmission), CERT (Thermal), CERT (hydro) and CERT (Distribution) have also been formed to coordinate with power utilities,” the minister said. The relevant stakeholders of Smart Grid have been advised to identify critical infrastructure and use end-to-end encryption for data security. “All utilities have been asked to identify a nodal senior executive as its Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to lead the process of strengthening organisational systems with respect to cyber security and implement an information security management systems as recommended by rules under the Information Technology (IT) Act 2008…,” the minister said. Lee Roy Selmon Jersey
German spot power price jumps on sharp fall in wind output
European spot power prices for day-ahead delivery rose on Tuesday due to a forecast sharp fall in wind power production and a rise in demand, with the German contract rising sharply. The German baseload contract for Wednesday delivery rose 26.25 percent to touch a one-month high of 38.25 euros ($41.24) per megawatt-hour (MWh). The equivalent French contract added 1.27 percent to 40 euros/MWh. Wind power production from German wind turbines is expected to tumble by over 13 gigawatts (GW) to 4.8 GW day-on-day on Wednesday, according to Thomson Reuters data. Solar power output will fall by 150 megawatts, the data showed. In France, consumption is expected to rise by 1.3 GW to nearly 60 GW on Wednesday as weather forecasts showed temperatures falling by average 1.2 degree Celsius. Michael Thomas Jersey