Mirage-2000 upgraded: Another HAL project takes off on schedule
Continuing its success in various projects recently, HAL flew the first FOC upgraded Mirage-2000 aircraft on July 28, adhering to the scheduled date of today. “We have done it again on time. What it proves is HAL’s capability for mid-life upgrade of platforms to overcome obsolescence issues, enhancing the reliability and maintainability of these aircraft. The introduction of a modern facility for this project ensured the timely upgradation of the Mirage fleet,” said T Suvarna Raju, CMD, HAL. The Final Operational Configuration (FOC) design was implemented on an Initial Operational Configured (IOC) aircraft, which was received at HAL about eight months ago. “This significant milestone could be achieved with the dedicated effort of HAL’s team of designers and engineers with active support from IAF, RCMA and DGAQA,” added Raju. Kasen Williams Jersey
Lessors approach DGCA to get 3 Air Pegasus planes deregistered
Aircraft lessors have approached the civil aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), asking it to deregister their three planes loaned to Air Pegasus after the airline defaulted on rental payment. The Bengaluru-based airline, which is facing severe fund crunch, has already suspended operations indefinitely, DGCA sources said. The airline has not been carrying out operations since Wednesday. “We have received an application from the lessors seeking deregistration of three ATR-72 plane with Air Pegasus,” a source said. The application is being processed, it said, adding that of the three aircraft, one is already out of operation for quite sometime. The deregistration will enable the lessors to take the aircraft out of the country after repossessing them. Air Pegasus Managing Director Shyson Thomas did not respond to calls. The carrier, which was launched in April 2015, operates flights from Bengaluru to Chennai, Cuddapah, Hubli, Madurai, Mangalore, Puducherry, and Trivandrum in South India, as per latest data available with the DGCA. Recently, DGCA has suspended five Air Pegasus pilots for serious safety violations. The civil aviation regulator had also warned that the airline would not be allowed to fly on new routes unless the lapses were addressed at the earliest. At that time, a senior Air Pegasus official had said that the issues raised by the regulator had been addressed. A safety audit of Air Pegasus, conducted in late April, showed serious violations safety rules in some of its flights. Ricky Seals-Jones Womens Jersey
Tata Power’s South African JV commissions 134 mw wind and energy farm
Tata Power Company’s joint venture in South Africa has commissioned a 134 megawatt wind energy farm in the country, the Tata group utility said in a press statement on Friday. Tata Power’s 50:50 JV with Exxaro Resources in South Africa, namely Cennergi (Pty) achieved commercial operations for its 134 MW Amakhala Emoyeni Wind Farm Project on Thursday. Cennergi was selected as the preferred bidder for two wind projects under the second window of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme by the South African government. The statement said that Cennergi’s second wind project is expected to go into commercial operations shortly. “Tata Power has been pursuing growth opportunities in India and overseas. The commissioning of Amakhala Wind farm, Tata Power’s first wind project outside India, marks the company’s continued progress on its objectives of enhancing non-fossil based generation portfolio up to 30-40% of its total generating capacity and thereby creating value for its stakeholders,” said Anil Sardana, CEO & Managing Director, Tata Power. Eric Rowe Authentic Jersey
SpiceJet sees growth in passenger traffic; more in regional market
Lower oil prices has led to a growth in the domestic airline industry and also airlines have increased their capacity. According to data from Directorate General of Civil Aviation the airlines have carried almost 21% more passengers in June 2016 than it was in June 2015 (7.97 million and 6.6 million passengers respectively). SpiceJet is flying the highest in this criteria as reported, they are functioning at 93% seats full. SpiceJet told Bloomberg TV India, that it has seen good growth of 22 percent in the number of passengers. It has spotted a change in the mode of transport that people are using, that is more and more people are upgrading to air travel. Although Spicejet said that it doesn’t see any drop in the demand for domestic air travel, but most of the growth is from the regional market, and the growth in the metro cities market has been rather mute. Still the airline believes that continuous discounting will keep stimulating demands. Demands for International flights has been seasonal. It was only two years ago, the airline was making huge losses as they were not getting oil refills and also the retreating of creditors had hit them badly. Spicejet recently launched its subsidiary called ‘SpiceJet Merchandise Private Limited’ with a focus on consumer merchandise, including readymade apparel. From January to March this year, in a fifth straight quarter, Spicejet posted a net profit Rs 73.19 crore, a three fold rise. Ozzie Newsome Authentic Jersey
Vistara doubles market share, Jet sees steep fall
Vistara has doubled its market share to 2.8 per cent in June over the corresponding month last year. Jet Airways saw the sharpest fall among all airlines during this period. Domestic air traffic rose 20.81 per cent in June on the back of low fares and peak season demand. Carriers flew 7.9 million passengers against 6.6 million passengers in June 2015. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data, domestic airlines flew 47.5 million passengers between January and June this year, registering a year-on-year (y-o-y) growth of 22.52 per cent. Vistara’s market share grew from 1.3 per cent in June 2015 to 2.8 per cent as it inducted aircraft and expanded its network. The market share of Jet Airways and JetLite (combined) slipped two percentage points to 19.1 per cent as it did not add aircraft and most of its capacity enhancement was through better aircraft utilisation. Daniel Sprong Womens Jersey
Aviation Minister A Raju hopes new policy would make flying ‘easy’
The government on Thursday hoped that the new civil aviation policy will ensure better viability gap funding which will result in improved connectivity of smaller airports by airlines operators and benefit the passengers. Responding to supplementaries in the Lok Sabha during Question Hour, Civil Aviation Minister A Gajapathi Raju said the funding was to be provided by the Centre as well as the state governments on a 80:20 ratio and 90:10 ratio for Northeastern states. He said revenue from passengers as well as viability fund will help the airline operators. “I hope that the scheme succeeds,” he said. It was pointed out to the ministers that certain airlines in the recent past have stopped services to some smaller airports citing lack of revenue. “The National Civil Aviation Policy, 2016 envisages to take flying to the masses by making it affordable and convenient. To promote this objective, the policy provides for regional connectivity scheme by way of upgradation/development of no-frills airports and viability gap funding to the airlines operating to these airports based on demands,” Raju said in his written reply. Kareem Hunt Authentic Jersey
Caution for govt’s regional connectivity scheme; fund cruch halts Air Pegasus’ ops for 2nd day
In October 2012, Kingfisher Airlines stopped operations because its engineers refused to certify aircraft fit for flying. This was a culmination of a long list of woes that the airline was facing. What happened over the next few months is well documented. Eventually, the airline’s flying permit expired and it never flew again. In December 2014, SpiceJet had to cease operations for a day because of unpaid dues to oil companies but then, with gradual help from the government, it got back on its feet under a new promoter who presented a comprehensive turnaround plan. The return was in a smaller avatar but operations have continued uninterrupted since. Cut to 2016, and another airline has been unable to conduct its operations for two days running. Only this time, it is a regional carrier called Air Pegasus which was operating just three aircraft, connecting Bengaluru to smaller cities across South India. The suspension of operations of Air Pegasus is a cautionary tale, specially since the Centre has been emphasising enhanced regional connectivity through a draft scheme which caps fares on regional routes in return for some viability gap funding to airlines. The scheme is not yet finalised but essentially encourages airlines with smaller aircraft to launch flights to India’s hinterland while getting some help from the Central and state governments in the form of VGF. The severe fund crunch which crippled the operations of Air Pegasus in the last two days should serve as warning against pitfalls of this ambitious scheme. A source confirmed that operations of Air Pegasus remain suspended today as well, as the promoters continue to hold negotiations for getting back aircraft and infusing some urgently needed funds into the airline. This person confirmed that the “cash burn” at the airline is Rs 5 crore a month and that there is an immediate need of up to Rs 100 crore to fund operations. What could not be ascertained is whether the three ATR aircraft which Air Pegasus was operating till day before yesterday have been possessed by lessors or not. Steve McNair Womens Jersey
Power crisis hits state as 2 plants suspend opreations
With the Kanti Bijli Utpadan Nigam Limited (unit-1) in Muzaffarpur and NTPC’s Kahalgaon super thermal power plant (unit-5) in Bhagalpur suspending operations due to technical reasons, major parts of the state have been reeling under acute power crisis. Bihar State Power Holding Company Limited (BSPHCL) spokesman H R Pandey on Wednesday said, “The boiler tube leakage of unit 1 of KBUNL since July 25 and the 25-day annual maintenance of unit 5 of the Kahalgaon power plant since July 5 have led to power shortage.” Of the total 3092MW power to be allocated to Bihar from the Centre, the state has been receiving a meagre 2617MW of power. According to sources,Patna normally requires nearly 500MW of power in peak hours. Since some parts of the state are flooded, power supply in those areas have been snapped as a precautionary measure. Marcus Morris Authentic Jersey
In 300-km range of any power plant: Fly ash mandatory for constructing new buildings
The state government has made it mandatory for all new buildings to be constructed using material containing fly ash, aiming to dispose of the entire quantity produced across Maharashtra without causing environment pollution and health hazards. Fly ash or coal dust is the ash produced in small dark flecks due to the burning of powdered coal during electricity generation and is very harmful to health and environment. It can, however, be used by the construction industry in making concrete and bricks. A senior official with the state public works department said, “We have made it compulsory for all new construction in the vicinity of 300 kilometres of any power plant in the state to use building construction material having fly ash. Considering Maharashtra’s area and the location of power plants, this will cover the entire state.” He added that for cities with a population of over one crore, the municipal corporations will amend the development control regulation to make the use of fly ash compulsory in building construction. Earlier, as per the Centre’s norms, it was compulsory for all construction projects in the vicinity of 100 kilometres of power plants to use material made out of fly ash. However, despite this, a large quantity of fly ash still remains unused prompting the government to come up with stricter regulation. Maharashtra currently produces three million tonne of fly ash every year, of which only about 60 per cent is used, while the rest is dumped and becomes a major source of pollution for areas in the vicinity, the official said. “The new decision will enable Maharashtra to become completely free of fly ash,” he added. Fly ash can typically make about 15-20 per cent of the concrete mix and is said to enhance the structural stability. With the cost of transporting fly ash from the thermal power station to the project site also being a deterrent for its use in the construction industry, the state government has now made it mandatory for the thermal power plant to bear all transportation costs within a distance of 100 kilometres. Beyond that, the cost is expected to be equally shared between the power plant and the user of fly ash. “The idea behind this is to reduce the cost of material produced from fly ash so that it is beneficial for the ultimate consumer,” a PWD engineer said. Besides private projects, the state also plans to use material containing fly ash for the construction of all public buildings, cement roads, bridges and other infrastructure under various government schemes. Seth Roberts Jersey
Piyush Goyal inducts Urban Vidyut Abhiyantas to monitor Integrated Power Scheme
Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday inducted Urban Vidyut Abhiyantas (UVAs) to monitor the implementation of the Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS). Mission mode The Minister said the UVAs will take the work on a mission mode, similar to the Grameen Vidyut Abhiyantas deputed for the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana. Goyal further said they will upload their reports on the implementation of the scheme on the URJA mobile application of the Ministry of Power in an effort to increase transparency. Some of the UVAs will be inducted in the State power distribution companies. These UVAs have an experience of 3-15 years in project management/distribution franchisee/infrastructure sector. The IPDS is part of the Ministry of Power’s efforts to ensure 24×7 electricity availability to all by 2022 and has a total outlay of ? 65,424 crore. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Power also announced on Thursday that the National Smart Grid Mission, along with USAID, has launched the first in a series of training programmes to develop skills of utility personnel to develop a smart grid infrastructure. Quality power Vishal Kapoor, Director-Distribution, Ministry of Power, said: “India expects to provide 24×7 quality power to all its people. The power generated will comprise a large share of renewable energy. “Managing renewable and conventional energy calls for a grid that is smart and capable of providing electricity to the remote corners of the country.” Michael Palardy Jersey