Domestic flight prices set to increase as govt imposes new levy from Dec 1
Airfares are set to rise with the government deciding to levy up to Rs 8,500 per flight on major routes to fund the regional air connectivity scheme. The levy amount would be for an entire flight and the price of each ticket could go up depending on the number of seats in that particular flight. Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey today said the levy would be up to Rs 8,500 per flight depending on distance. The ambitious scheme — UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) — seeks to connect small cities by air as well as make flying more affordable for the masses. To provide viability gap funding for the flights operated under the regional connectivity scheme, the Ministry would impose a levy on every departure on major air routes such as the national capital, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata. “The levy for an up to 1,000 kilometre length of scheduled flight will be Rs 7,500 per flight, Rs 8,000 for a 1,000 to 1,500 kilometre flight and Rs 8,500 for flights above 1,500 kilometre,” Choubey said here. For UDAN, the government would be creating the Regional Connectivity Fund (RCF). Steven Kampfer Jersey
Cashless on highways, truckers starve for more than 30 hrs
National Highway 334, near Bulandshahr: Rasheed Khan is eating in complete silence. It is, after all, his first meal in over 30 hours. Only once he finishes his meal does the Jammu native start to talk about how demonetisation has affected him. “I left Kanpur for Jammu on Saturday morning. The last time I had a meal was on the outskirts of Kanpur. My next meal came on Sunday, after driving over 500 km. No place is willing to accept Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes and that is all I have, besides some change which I do not want to use. I have a long journey ahead,” he says. Khan is not alone. TOI spoke to truck drivers on Bulandshahr-Haridwar NH 334, all of whom are worried about being cashless on the highway. Some say their money is running out between cups of tea and bribes to cops while others are anxious about what they would do if their truck breaks down. “I left my home in Jammu seven days ago – with a bundle of Rs 500 notes which were legal currency at the time. While I was driving to Kanpur, the announcement came that my money was nothing more than pieces of paper. I thought my contractor in Kanpur would be able to give me change, but even he said he didn’t have any. I think he was lying. Luckily, petrol pumps are still taking the old currency and the toll is free. I think I can get this consignment to Jammu before the toll exemption lifts, but I don’t know what will happen after that,” says Sanjay Kumar, who is driving his truck alongside Khan’s on their 1,100 km-long journey from Kanpur to Jammu. With the economy being cash-strapped, most of India’s small towns have fallen back on barter and good faith. But for truckers, who spend most of their days on the move, “good faith” is a luxury. “Most of the people we interact with, except for contractors and other truck drivers, are strangers to us. It’s not like I’m going to my neighbourhood grocer who is fine with me paying him later. When I stop at a dhaba to eat something or stop at a mechanic’s shop for minor repairs, I can’t tell him that I’ll pay later. Why would he trust a stranger? That’s why we are so vulnerable,” Khan says. Ram Avtar Singh from Rampur says Madhuri, a name he has given to his beloved truck, has served him well so far. But he is fearful that if “she” breaks down at any point during his 1,300-km journey to Ahmedabad, he will be stranded for hours, or maybe days. “I was worried about cash, but my contractor gave me a Rs 2,000 note. Unfortunately, someone picked my pocket at a dhaba and I lost the note. Now I am left with mostly old currency notes in my truck, except a few Rs 100 notes. I am trying to save money for emergencies, so I have not eaten much. Since I’ve left Rampur, I’ve only had one cup of tea and a cream roll. Maybe I will eat something once I cross Jaipur. We need to have cash in hand for emergencies. That is why I hope the government can fix this mess soon.” While most of the country is lining up outside banks to withdraw and deposit cash, truckers say that, too, is a luxury for him. Singh says, “We are on the move all the time. We don’t go home for weeks. If we stop at a bank for four hours, our day is gone and we will miss our delivery schedule. When is the time for standing in lines?” Meanwhile, the waiter tells Khan and Kumar that they owe Rs 185. Kumar tries a shot in the dark and asks the waiter if he will accept a Rs 500 note, but he is turned down. He pulls out Rs 200 and pays for them both. Ask them when their next meal will be and Khan says, “See we have Rs 175 left between the two of us. That should be enough for one meal. Maybe we will stop at Rajpura in Punjab and eat.” Rajpura is still over 300 km away for the both of them. Alexander Burmistrov Jersey
TTAG: Need an expressway from Mopa to Canacona
The Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) has got a boost in its attempt to keep the Dabolim airport functional for commercial operations after defence minister Manohar Parrikar said that the airport will remain open even after operations commence at Mopa. Earlier, the tourism industry based in South Goa had issued a letter on Saturday addressed to the Prime Minister, asking him to scrap the greenfield international airport at Mopa. “The proposed airport is economically unviable and financially unsound and thus lead to the destruction of the tourism industry in Goa,” the letter, signed by major hotel groups, restaurants and shop owners said. All the major luxury hotels are based in South Goa, close to the Dabolim airport. The proposed airport at Mopa, whose foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister on Sunday is slated to commence operations from 2019 onwards. The hotel lobby has raised fear of losing business due to the shift and has been trying hard through the TTAG to keep their business safe. Affirming the intentions of the hotel lobby, president of TTAG, Savio Messias said that they have been in discussion with the government and have been told that the decision to keep Dabolim airport functional depends on commercial viability. “If the government does decide to close operations at Dabolim, we have requested an expressway to be built, connecting Mopa to Canacona. We have been told there is a proposal to connect Mopa with a railway line going from Pernem to Canacona,” he said. Tramaine Brock Jersey
Gadkari puts babus on fast road to reforms
With only 20 per cent of annual national highways construction targets achieved so far, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari is certainly not a happy man. Realising that factors such as land acquisition, legal issues, forest and wildlife clearances are the main reasons for the projects getting delayed for 12-18 months and are beyond their control, his ministry now seems to be looking at out-of-the-box solutions. Gadkari has directed officials to ensure land acquisition hurdles are removed. “For clearance of every project, it takes one or one-and-a-half years. It is the problem of the system. After 2.5 years of experience, I understand what the bottlenecks are. In interactions with the National Highways Authority of India, we are taking a lot of reforms initiatives,” said Gadkari. The ministry recently deployed a senior joint secretary-level officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre in the poll-bound state and interact with district-level officials to ensure that the projects do not face many problems at the local level. Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has directed his officials to remove roadblocks on the construction of the national highways. “It has been an interesting attempt. It seems to be working. It will also ensure that ministry officials have a channel with local officials. This may at least cut delays on account of miscommunication and other simple issues,” said a senior ministry official. The official said they are aware about the problems and are looking towards such simple solutions to work around the delays because otherwise it would never be able to achieve their target. The ministry has also decided to go for acquiring land as per provisions of respective states. The ministry, which had set an ambitious target of construction of 25,000 km of highways in the last eight months, has only been able to commission 4,500 km. Road and railways are two important sectors for the Narendra Modi government as it believes they would bring last-mile connectivity, and infrastructure creation would fuel growth. Last month, the ministry had noted that many projects are lagging due to delay in land acquisition, forest, wildlife clearance, utility shifting, slow progress of contractor and other reasons. “It has been opined that such projects need close on-site monitoring to identify the bottlenecks and ensure timely completion in order to achieve the national target of construction of national highways of 30 km/Day,” said an order issued to state officers by the ministry. When NDA assumed power, India had 96,000 km of national highways and it is planned to increase up to 200,000 km by 2019. Roberto Luongo Womens Jersey
2 lakh heavy diesel vehicles to go off Delhi roads today
Nearly 2 lakh heavy diesel vehicles more than 15 years old will not be allowed to ply in the city from Sunday. They cannot be parked here either. The transport department has drawn up a list of 1.91 lakh such vehicles that it has deregistered on the orders of the National Green Tribunal. Senior government officials said the list had been sent to the traffic police late Friday night, with instructions to impound them immediately. The list has details of the vehicles, including owner’s name, registration number and address. It also specifies the RTO where the vehicle was registered. “The list has details of 1.91 lakh diesel vehicles that are now deregistered. These vehicles cannot ply on roads legally, and neither will these vehicles be allowed to remain parked on roads,” said an official. That’s not all. The department has also compiled a list of vehicles that are between 10 and 15 years old and run on diesel. “There are over 1 lakh such vehicles. The list is ready, and once the NGT issues orders, these will be deregistered as well.” The transport department has identified 21 locations where the impounded vehicles will be kept but that might not be enough to park nearly two lakh vehicles. Traffic officers say they have requested the government to provide additional land space. As of now, the traffic pits can accommodate only 1,000-1,200 heavy vehicles at a time. Violators will be issued challans under section 39/192 of the MV Act and would also have to pay a fine of Rs 2,000. Vehicles will be impounded under section 207 of the MV Act. Traffic police officers say they will prosecute vehicles plying on the road while the transport department will act against owners of parked vehicles. “We will be scanning through our records registered on the e-challan systems to identify the vehicles that are more than 15 years old and impound them. Legal actions regarding plying of unregistered vehicles would be initiated against the owners of the vehicles,” said Garima Bhatnagar, joint commissioner of traffic. Andrew McCutchen Womens Jersey
NHAI to offer risk cover to woo investors for toll roads’ auction
Foreign funds willing to invest in government owned operational national highways need not worry about loss of traffic and other unforeseen risks like engineering faults associated with projects, because National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has agreed to provide a risk cover to such investors. The government had recently authorised NHAI to monetise operational public-funded national highways that are collecting tolls by leasing out them to investors for 25 years against an upfront payment through auctions. Roads ministry expects to raise close to Rs 70,000 crore by leasing out over 100 national highway projects to investors who’ll then be responsible for collection of toll and the operation and management of the stretch, through a toll operate transfer (TOT) model. In a recent meeting with the government, potential investors had flagged the huge financial risk associated with the possibility of structural design faults, sub-standard quality of construction and loss of traffic, and said they would invest only if these risks were covered. “A pension fund or its operation management agency cannot run after NHAI or roads ministry officials to provide compensation for any big structural damage or loss in toll revenue. The government needs to cover all this risk in the model concession agreement,” a senior executive of an international pension fund told ET. NHAI has started the work on mentioning all these risks and who will underwrite the liability in the master concession agreement (MCA) for TOT deals. “Suppose there’s a loss in toll collection or a big structural damage due to some engineering problem, NHAI would provide the cover for it. We are building enough safeguards in the system so that investor confidence remains intact,” NHAI chairman Raghav Chandra told ET. NHAI is also proposing a third party engineering audit of the projects before they are bid out. Chandra said the bidding process for leasing out projects would be started soon. “Till now we were addressing the concerns flagged by the investors. We are including everything in the MCA so that there’s nothing that remains in dark for the future. Now, we’ll start the process of bidding,” he said. Several international pension funds including CDPQ, Brookfield, Ontario Teachers and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority have evinced interest in investing the government’s drive to monetise its road assets to fund new roads. NHAI plans to bundle various projects for investors based on regional proximity, and the entire portfolio would be bid out. Michael Pierce Jersey
Solar tariffs set to reach a record low with reserve price at Rs 4/kwH
Solar tariffs are set to reach a record low with the Solar Corporation of India’s latest tender, which sets the reserve price at Rs 4 per kwH. SECI has invited online bids for setting up projects with capacity of 750 MW at the Bhadla Solar Park in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur district — 500 MW in Bhadla Phase III and 250 MW in Bhadla Phase IV — as part of the second phase of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. Bhadla has the highest solar radiation in the country and thereby can generate power at the cheapest cost. So far, the lowest bid had been Rs 4.34 per kwH, offered by Finnish major Fortum Finnsurya to set up a 70 MW plant at Bhadla in an NTPC-conducted auction in January this year. In a number of subsequent auctions, SECI had set the reserve price at Rs 4.35 per kwH. The latest reserve price thus indicates a steep reduction. “We want tariffs to go lower, so that states show more interest in solar energy,” said SECI Managing Director Ashvini Kumar. State discoms have often shown reluctance in buying solar and other forms of renewable power, since power from conventional thermal sources is cheaper. But a rate of Rs 4 per kwH competes very well with that of new coal. It remains to be seen, however, how solar developers, who have already been complaining about falling solar tariffs affecting their margins, respond to the new reserve price. As in earlier auctions, the government will provide viability gap funding as well, but projects will go to those seeking the lowest VGF. Latavius Murray Authentic Jersey
‘Termination’ clause in India-Japan civil nuclear deal not binding on India
The landmark civil nuclear deal signed with Japan last week has a “termination” clause contained in a note attached to the main text, which India says is not binding on the country. The Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, signed in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on Friday, has a note on “Views and Understanding”, in which the Japanese side cited India’s September 2008 declaration of a unilateral moratorium on atomic tests, saying if this commitment is violated, the deal will be terminated. According to the Indian government, the note merely records the views of the two sides. “That note is simply a record by the negotiators of respective views on certain issues. It is not the NCA (Nuclear Cooperation Agreement) which is what is binding,” a person familiar with the development said. The clarification comes in the wake of confusion on whether the note is part of the operative text of the agreement. “On termination, there is no change from the US template,” the person said. According to the 2008 India US agreement, in case either of the two countries terminates the agreement, the country that terminates the pact will have to give a year’s written notice to the other. “A Party giving notice of termination shall provide the reasons for seeking such termination,” says the text of the India-US agreement. “Before this Agreement is terminated… the parties shall consider the relevant circumstances and promptly hold consultations…to address the reasons cited by the party seeking termination. The party seeking termination has the right to cease further cooperation under this Agreement if it determines that a mutually acceptable resolution of outstanding issues has not been possible or cannot be achieved through consultations. The parties agree to consider carefully the circumstances that may lead to termination or cessation of cooperation. They further agree to take into account whether the circumstances that may lead to termination or cessation resulted from a party’s serious concern about a changed security environment or as a response to similar actions by other States which could impact national security,” says the text of the India-US agreement. Japan, the only country in the world to suffer nuclear attacks, has made a major exception by signing the atomic cooperation agreement with India, despite the latter not being a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). After the India-Japan deal was signed, foreign secretary S. Jaishankar had said that the pact was strikingly similar to atomic agreements India inked with the US and most of the other countries, having provisions like “termination” clause. During the joint press conference with Modi after the deal was signed, Abe had referred to India’s declaration of September 2008 with regard to voluntary moratorium on nuclear tests. “This agreement is a legal framework that India will act responsibly in peaceful uses of nuclear energy and also in Non-Proliferation regime even though India is not a participant or signatory of NPT,” he had said. P. J. Williams Authentic Jersey
Chandigarh: Power department to set up call centre
THE CHANDIGARH electricity department will set up a round-the-clock centralised call centre in a bid to ensure quick response to the complaints of city residents. The call centre is part of the ambitious Smart Grid Project under the National Smart Grid Mission, which is being implemented in the city. Presently, for grievances related to power supply, the consumers call on the telephone numbers of their respective sub-divisions. The consumers face inconvenience due to the time taken in restoring power in case ofd a breakdown. They often complain about numbers being busy or not being answered whenever there is power outage. The complaint numbers are manned by untrained staff. In daily routine, the department receives around 300 complaints. The centralised call centre will have trained staff to attend to consumer complaints. The call centre will be equipped to feed the complaints lodged by the residents into the database and forward it to the field staff of the sub-division concerned for appropriate action. The call centre will also have the facility to record calls, both incoming and outgoing. After registration of a complaint, consumer will get alert through SMS information them about nature of fault and duration of outage. The operation of the call centre will be outsourced. UT superintending engineer MP Singh said they were working out the modalities and would submit the proposal to ministry of power and joint Electricity Regularity Commission (JERC) for approval. Federation of Sector Welfare Associations Chandigarh (FOSWAC) chairman Baljinder Singh Bittu, said centralised call centre would be of great help to residents. UT Powermen Union general secretary Gopal Dutt Joshi said the department needs to first address the problem of staff shortage if they are serious about providing better services to the consumers. “We don’t have sufficient field staff for timely redressal of complaints of consumers,” said Joshi. Mike Gillislee Womens Jersey
Transmission & Distribution losses in Andhra Pradesh dip to 9.98 per cent
Energy utilities of Andhra Pradesh, making rapid strides on various fronts, achieved yet another distinction by bringing down the transmission and distribution (T&D) losses to a record 9.98 per cent, lowest in the country, in the first half of the current fiscal. The state currently boasts of a “zero deficit” in energy availability and has been successfully implementing “24×7 Power for All” since September 2014. The state annually consumes 50,000 million units of power with the cost of service pegged at Rs 5.33 a unit but the demand is expected to increase exponentially due to increased industrialisation. As metered sale of power rose by one per cent from 72 per cent last year, power utilities could save Rs 270 crore annually. Early this month, the World Bank ranked Andhra Pradesh as the best state in the country in implementing energy efficiency and conservation measures. With Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu putting the energy utilities on a “mission mode reform” approach, the Power Transmission Corporation of AP has brought down T&D losses from 12.6 per cent in 2014-15 to 10.60 per cent in 2015-16 and now to 9.98 per cent in the F1 of 2016-17 financial year, according to state Transco Managing Director K Vijayanand. Now, the chief minister has set a target of cutting down the T&D losses further to below six per cent in the coming years in tune with global standards. “We have been successfully implementing Power for All scheme for the last two years. We have achieved self-sufficiency in power generation and the energy deficit has been nullified from 10.6 per cent (22 million units) in June 2014 (when the state was bifurcated),” Vijayanand said in a statement here today. To reduce the losses further, the AP Transco would invest a sum of Rs 13,170 crore till 2019 on improving power transmission system, including construction of 88 substations with a total transformer capacity of 18,632 MVA, he added. “We have now joined the select club of a few states in India, the first from the south, enjoying power surplus status. We are able to meet the incident load\power demand without any hassles and efforts are being made to sustain this over a long period,” according to Energy Principal Secretary Ajay Jain. Percy Miller Authentic Jersey