HIGHWAY PROJECTS WORTH RS 5 LAKH CRORE PLANNED IN 2 YEARS
The Narendra Modi government has set an ambitious target of awarding Rs 5 lakh crore worth of highway contracts, totalling about 50,000 km, in the last two years of its tenure, surpassing the cumulative road length awarded for paying in the last five years. Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari told ET that the contracts will be for 44 economic corridors and 10 expressways, and would include the ‘chardham’ connectivity programme, northeast connectivity programme and the borders-linking projects. Over the last five years, the government could award only 40,000 km of fresh highway length for construction. “We have planned several projects that would be very crucial for overall development of the country. These new highways would decongest the existing roads, bringing down logistics cost by 5-6%,” Gadkari told ET. “My ministry’s vision is that a freight vehicle should move on highways without restrictions and should be able to do at least 400 km per day. It will have very positive impact on the logistics industry.” At present, there are 10 expressway projects at various stages of implementation. Gadkari said his ministry would raise money through NHAI bonds, monetisation of highways and additional allocation in budgetary support. He said the Centre’s first expressway, the Eastern peripheral expressway, would be ready in a few months. Most of these projects would be undertaken on the hybrid annuity model, where the government shares the project risk with the private partner and bears 40% of the project cost upfront. Of the 50,000 km of road length that will be awarded for construction, paving work for 30,000 km of highways will start in the last two years, the ministry has said. This fiscal, the government is targeting construct of almost 15,000 km of highways, up 45% from what it achieved in FY17. Over the last three years, the ministry has awarded contracts for over 34,000 km of roads as compared with 15,000 km awarded by the UPA government in its last three years.Actual construction in the last three years has been about 22,000 km as compared with 6,000 km during the last three years of the UPA government. Brendan Smith Womens Jersey
NHAI to take up one-time upgrade of highways
Given the states’ demand that one-time improvement (OTI) works on national highways be funded by the Centre, the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) has directed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to carry out such works out of budgetary allocations or borrowed funds. When a national highway (NH) stretch gets congested, a stretch is developed bypassing the stretch. Upon requests from the state, while NHAI develops the new stretch, MoRTH had earlier taken upon itself the task of redeveloping the existing stretch since 2015-16, which otherwise is the duty of the state through which the highway passes through. However, MoRTH does not want to carry on with the activity, which used to burden it with around Rs 1,000 crore a year, any longer. This is because of limited budgetary allocation. Outgoing secretary Sanjay Mitra, who is set to take over as defence secretary, has already communicated the ministry’s decision to NHAI chairman Y S Malik. “The ministry has been receiving several proposals for one-time improvement (OTI) works from states/NHAI for implementation under NH (O). Keeping in view the limited available budgetary allocations under NH (O) and the need to focus on development of existing non-NHDP NHs and development of NHs approved in-principle in a time-bound manner, it has been decided that all new works of OTI, shall, henceforth, be implemented by NHAI,” he wrote. “NHAI shall implement OTI works out of the budgetary allocations and additional resources mobilised through market borrowings of NHAI. No additional Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) funds to be earmarked to NHAI for these works,” he added. NHAI, which spent around `70,000 crore for development of highways last fiscal, however, is not perturbed. A senior authority official said the additional annual burden on NHAI would not be more than `1,000 crore as the ministry says no additional GBS funds must be given for such works. “This will not impact NHAI’s works since the amount is pretty small,” he said. Taking in toll collection and cess on highways, NHAI is likely to get around `20,000-crore budgetary support from the ministry out of the total `64,900 crore budgetary allocation for the 2017-18 fiscal. NHAI raises funds through bonds for highways development. Last fiscal, it raised around `40,000 crore through both taxable and tax-free bonds in 2016-17, a quantum jump from the previous three years’ average of `24,000 crore. However, in 2016-17 too, it could not exhaust the permissible limit of `59,297 crore. The limit has been kept at the same level in the current fiscal. NHAI has been asked to construct 6,000 km and award 10,000 km highways in the current fiscal. Jon Casey Jersey
Power producers see tariffs coming down under GST regime
Thermal power tariffs are likely to come down due to lower tax rate on coal under the Good and Service Tax regime which is expected to be rolled out from July 1, 2017. The tax rate has been finalised at 5 per cent on coal as against the current tax incidence of 11.69 per cent at the GST Council meeting held in Srinagar today. “The coal-based thermal power rates of different power plants may see a downward trends under the new GST regime as lower tax rate of 5 per cent proposed on it,” an official of an independent power producer said. However, the official said that the quantum or proportion of reduction in the tariff could not be ascertained at this point of time because there is multiple layer of levies and charges on coal as well as on electricity. At present the average price of power of the state-run power giant NTPC Ltd is about Rs 3.20 per unit. Its different plants have different rates of tariff based on fixed cost, levies and other charges. A senior official of a public sector firm explained, “The power tariff would definitely come down but we don’t know to what extend. The new plants have higher rate of tariff because of fixed cost but the older plants rates are lower due negligible fixed cost.” The official further said, “Coal is the main input for a thermal power plant and even a percentage point reduction in tax would mean a lot for power producers. But how much power distributing companies would pass it on to consumer would be seen once the new GST regime is rolled out. Jaquiski Tartt Authentic Jersey
Despite 3-runways IGI has fewer flights than Heathrow, Dubai
Indira Gandhi International Airport has three runways, but trails those abroad with as many or fewer landing strips in hourly flight handling capacity .It isn’t surprising then that the airport catering to India’s capital is currently unable to meet the airlines’ growing demand for slots to operate additional flights, thus restricting the flyers’ options. Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd, which runs the airport, has informed airlines that it cannot add a single flight between 7am and 10pm this summer. IndiGo alone was denied permission for 30 flights it planned for the summer season. IGIA has been shown up as a laggard in a comparison made by NATS, the UK-based air traffic control services provider which was hired by DIAL to suggest means of augmenting aircraft movement on its three runways. The NATS report accessed by TOI shows two-runway airports like Hong Kong, Dubai International and London’s Heathrow and three-runway airports like Istanbul and Beijing have much higher hourly aircraft movement. Given that the runways at Heathrow and Dubai are so close to each other as to preclude simultaneous use, IGIA ‘s lower capacity is significant because two of its runways are distant enough as to allow their use at the same time. IGIA ‘s runways currently handle 62 schedule and five non-schedule (VIP , defence or charter) flights every hour. On paper, the maximum hourly capacity of IGIA ‘s three runways is 75 aircraft (70 schedule and five non-schedule). It also handles just 45 flights an hour between 11pm and 6am due to special usage procedures meant to cut down on nighttime noise from planes. Delhi, however, has reasons for its sub-par performance, unlike Mumbai, which has become the world’s busiest single-runway airport. As an Airports Authority of India (AAI) official explained, “ A significant part of Delhi is a no-fly zone (the entire aerial portion from AIIMS to the VVIP enclave comprising Rashtrapati Bhawan, Parliament House and the prime minister’s residence). There is also the restricted airspace reserved for the Hindon air base in the neighbourhood.“ As a result, planes cannot approach IGIA in a circular manner, only through a narrow corridor, irrespective of which direction they are flying in from. The official added, “The constant VVIP flights al so hamper regular flights.“ AAI disclosed that NATS, after an earlier study , had suggested enhancement of ground infrastructure such as rapid exits and aprons to reduce the time taken to vacate the runway . However, such infrastructure has not been planned at IGIA. DIAL did not offer a comment for this story . In any case, as the AAI official pointed out, it would be useless to squeeze extra flights into the schedule in the absence of the capacity at the terminals to manage the additional passengers and baggage. “In fact, this is the reason why no low-cost carrier has agreed to shift from Terminal 1 to T2 when such a move led to no extra slots,“ the official added. Union aviation minister Jayant Sinha is meeting stakeholders at IGIA to discuss NATS’ roadmap for a phased increase of hourly flight capacity. AAI chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra too will meet the involved parties to see if the targets set for short and medium term are being met. “Some additional infrastructure is required and we are working on that,“ said Mohapatra. T. J. Logan Womens Jersey
France ready to sell new fighter jets, submarines to India
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Under new President Emmanuel Macron, France will continue to beef up the Indian military arsenal with fighter jets and submarines. French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation and state-owned shipbuilder DCNS are in fact negotiating new deals with the Indian government for the sale of their Rafale multi-role aircraft and diesel-electric attack Scorpene-class submarine respectively. Last Sunday, coinciding with Macron’s inauguration, Dassault Aviation chief executive Eric Trappier revealed to French daily Sud-Ouest that its company was talking to India about the sale of a further 57 Rafales. Last September, Dassault Aviation secured an US$8.8 billion contract to supply the Indian Air Force with 36 Rafale jets. It is said that, once inducted, they will form two squadrons. One will be stationed in the state of Haryana, near the Pakistani border, and the other in West Bengal to face possible threats posed by China on the eastern front. The new batch of 57 Rafale aircraft is intended for the Indian Navy, which must still develop the aviation complex for its domestically built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. The Indian government says the new flattop will be delivered in December 2018, but a national auditor reported last year that it might not be combat-ready before 2023. New Delhi has weighed other options for a new fighter platform for its aircraft-carrier force, including Sweden’s Saab Gripen, the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and Russia’s MiG-29K. John Matuszak Jersey
Delhi airport handling lesser flights than capacity: Government
Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, the biggest and busiest in the country, is handling fewer flights than it can, government data revealed. The data, accessed by ET, shows that Delhi airport currently operates a maximum of 67 flights every hour when it can handle up to 75 flights an hour. Yet, the airport is unable to add flights during the peak period. “The airport, despite three runways, is not able to utilise its capacity fully. It is also the only Indian airport among the big ones not to do so,” said an airline executive, who did not want to be identified. “There are no peak-time slots available at Delhi airport.” During the slot allocation meeting for the winter schedule held in March, airlines had complained about capacity constraints at airports. Travis Sanheim Jersey
India’s airline passenger growth rises 17.71% in April
Indian domestic carriers recorded a passenger growth grew by 17.71% higher than the same period in the previous year, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a report on Thursday. “Passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-April 2017 were 364.13 lakhs as against 309.35 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 17.71%,” DGCA said. The total number of passengers in the month of April alone reached 91.34 lakh. In March the passenger count was 90.46 lakh. There has been an increase in the passenger load factor (PLF) in April, with SpiceJet topping the list at 93.4% PLF. “The passenger load factor in the month of Apr 2017 has shown increasing trend compared to previous month primarily due to beginning of tourist season,” DGCA said. Highest level of cancellation was witnessed by Air Carnival at 58%. In the previous month its cancellation rate was 9.68%. Overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of April was at 0.43%. Majority of the complaints at 1.9 complaints per 10,000 passengers from national carrier – Air India. On Time Performance (OTP) of most of the airlines were in close proximity of each other with Vistara taking the lead at 87.4%. The market share of IndiGo increased in April, taking the lead at 41.4% and Jet Airways coming in second with 15.2% market share. Air India and SpiceJet’s total market share dipped from 13% and 13.2% respectively in March to 12.9% each in April. Reggie Jackson Authentic Jersey
International Solar Alliance to set up $300 bn fund
The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is proposing to set up a $300 billion fund to support clean energy projects in member countries over the next 10 years. “The proposal is to strive for 300 billion dollar global fund over 10 year with contributions from the World Bank … and also from Green Climate Fund to leverage $3,000 billion investment from the corporate sector for meeting investment requirement for solar energy programmes and projects in ISA member countries for the next 10 years,” ISA interim Director General Upendra Tripathy told reporters here. The ISA is an alliance of more than 120 countries. The allocation will be notional and will only be backed with 20 per cent of the amount being budgeted. The risk guarantee premium may be 0.8 to 1 per cent and the World Bank may administer it as a commercial project, Tripathy said. “We are thinking of creating over a period of 10 years 300 billion dollar fund. 300 billion dollar is a big number,” he said. “The idea of ISA is not to ask for cheques not to tell them to deposit money. This…is the cheque of assurance, of commitment, that if somebody has taken the assurance and the claim comes then only you have to settle it…this will attract capital into this sector in the ratio of 1:10.” SA was launched in November 30, 2015, as a coalition of solar resource rich countries jointly by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande in the presence of the then UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on the first day of the Paris Climate Conference or CoP21. “If we put one dollar in insurance 10 dollar will come by way of investment. If we put 300 billion dollar, 3000 billion dollar will come,” he said. India is also examining allocating a line of credit of $1 billion for non-African ISA member countries. It is on the lines of a $2 billion line of credit being operated by the Ministry of External Affairs in Africa for solar projects in countries that have signed and ratified the ISA treaty. The ISA along with France and India is proposing to launch a programme for solar mini grids in the near future. Indian firms have submitted expression of interest for setting up of mini grids equivalent to 78 mw in partnering African countries under India’s soft loan related schemes for the continent. The ISA has also proposed setting up a mechanism to lower the risk involved in financing of solar projects. “The ISA programme, ‘Affordable Finance at Scale’, launched in April 2016 offers as its action point to set the ground for establishment of Common Risk Mitigating Mechanism,” Tripathy said. Riley Reiff Jersey
Do not need lower GST rates to grow solar energy in India: Piyush Goyal
Power, coal, renewable energy and mines minister Piyush Goyal today said the government does not need lower tax rates to ensure the growth of solar power sector in India. Goyal was talking in the context of 18 per cent rate that has been finalised for solar panels by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council. He said GST rates have been brought in to simplify the tax structure. “GST regime is designed to help bring down costs and we are positive it will help reduce corruption and operational difficulties,” Goyal said. The government aims to scale up India’s solar power capacity to 100,000 Megawatt by 2022. This will be part of the 175,000 Mw renewable energy target that the government wants to achieve. The GST Council, in its three-day meeting in Srinagar on Thursday laid out the rates for around 81 per cent of goods. Most of the goods have been kept at or below the 18 per cent tax slab. Coal has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of GST under which the fuel will attract a rate of 5 per cent against 11.7 per cent it used to attract earlier. The new rates under GST are set to roll out from July 1. DJ Chark Jersey
Brighter India: Watch NASA’s map of night-time India highlighted by Piyush Goyal
Power minister Piyush Goyal today highlighted a night-time map of India released by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that shows how large parts of the country are lit against a darker background on the World Map, thanks to the progress of the centre’s village electrification scheme. The map is part of a booklet released here by Goyal in an event today on the status of rural electrification in the country. More than 18,452 villages in India were in darkness even after 68 years of independence forcing them to “live in 17th century lifestyle”, the centre’s information wing Press Information Bureau (PIB) said in a twitter update following the event. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2015 pledged to complete electrification of these villages within 1,000 days ending 1 May 2018. “The government took this up in mission mode under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY),” PIB said. The scheme has a total outlay of Rs 75,893 crore and more than 13,469 villages were electrified out of the total 18,452 unelectrified villages. The government said this was possible because of the “Power for All” programme signed by all the states leading to rapid urbanization. The DDUGJY scheme includes separation of agricultural feeders, strengthening of the transmission and distribution infrastructure, micro-grid and off-grid distribution network and installing meters for feeders, distribution transformers and consumers. Demaryius Thomas Womens Jersey