Gas migration row between ONGC- Reliance: Government says Shah Panel can decide on compensation
The petroleum ministry has told the Justice AP Shah committee on the migration of gas from ONGC-held gas blocks to adjacent fields of Reliance Industries that its remit includes deciding on possible compensation, if any, to the government as well over any “unfair enrichment”. That effectively rules out any other remedy under the production-sharing contract (PSC) or the possibility of fresh arbitration between Reliance Industries and the government, clearing the way for the single-member committee to issue its report on the matter by the end of July. The petroleum ministry’s June 7 communication to the panel, which is not in the public domain, came after Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) contended the government was the sole custodian of natural resources and compensation if any should go to the Centre rather than ONGC. Shah then issued an order regarding the matter. “The issue before it is the dispute between ONGC and RIL which includes the question of whether there exists a claim for unjust enrichment by ONGC against RIL,” Shah said in a May 9 ruling. “The committee clarified its mandate does not extend to considering claim, if any, between the government and RIL. If the government has any claim against RIL it can always resort to appropriate remedy under the production-sharing contract.” DGH’s submission had prompted the Shah panel to ask the government for its view. According to RIL, the intervention by DGH meant the matter needed to be enquired into afresh. RIL believes that any claim made by government against it would need to be resolved in another forum and therefore disassociated from the committee in light of new claims by DGH,” Shah recorded in the May 9 order. Responding to the May 9 order, the petroleum ministry assured the committee on June 7 that the government is in fact included under the terms of reference (ToR). These allow the panel to quantify enrichment, if any, to RIL held blocks and to “make good the loss to ONGC/government on account of such unfair enrichment to the contractor”. RIL also wrote to the petroleum ministry seeking fresh discussions on the subject. ONGC has sought compensation from RIL for what it says is the loss of more than 18 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas that migrated from its Krishna-Godavari Basin fields as well as the gas left stranded due to allegedly poor reservoir management by RIL. It’s seeking the cost of the gas with 18% interest. RIL declined to comment on the matter. “It would be inappropriate to comment on the submission itself in deference to Justice Shah’s instructions to the parties to maintain strict confidentiality,” the company said in an email to ET. “We have already made our detailed submission to the Hon’ble Shah Committee regarding the filing made by (Canadian partner) Niko. Steve McNair Womens Jersey
Highways sector poised for growth, says NHAI chief
The highways sector is poised for rapid growth as new opportunities unfold for construction of highways and some mega pipeline projects, according to Raghav Chandra, Chairman of National Highways Authority of India. Outlining the overall vision, the NHAI chief said the focus is on development with a changed approach from output-based thinking to outcome-based thinking where PPP mode projects will be not only for constrction component but also for service aspect in highways development. He said: “The national highways management has moved from construction-based to service-based achievement approach aimed at enhancing competitiveness and user satisfaction.” During his address at the national conference on Highways Construction Technology, Chandra mentioned about Green Highway projects and the importance of safety in the highways. He said NHAI is keen to have private players to patrol the national highways, which would help in traffic management and maintain road discipline. The NHAI official said more than 30,000 km of road projects are in the pipeline. NHAI has around 250 projects across the country and has completed more than 400 projects in the past. Chandra said it is expected to spend about $15-16 billion dollars during 2016-17. Some 97 projects with a total length of 6,631 km, which entail an investment of Rs. 1 lakh crore, are being awarded during 2016-17. Some of the projects to be awarded include Vadodara-Mumbai 6/8 lane Expressway (Phase I ), Surat- Mumbai with a spur to Mumbai-Pune expressway and JNPT in Phase II, Delhi-Jaipur expressway, 6-8 lane semi-elevated Delhi-Meerut expressway, Somnath-Porbander-Dwarka section of NH-8E, Bihar/Jharkhand border-Barwa, Hospet-Bellary NH-63, Tamil Nadu Karnataka Border Bengaluru section of NH-209, Solapur-Bijapur section of NH-13, Salasar-Nagpur section of NH-65, Vikravandi-Thanjavur section of NH-45C, and four-laning Nagpur-Wardha-Nanded-Solapur-Ratnagiri section of NH-36. Some of the projects awaiting approval for award and execution include Hyderabad-Vijayawada-Amaravati Expressway of 278 km (Rs 2673 crore), Nagpur-Hyderabad expressway of 505 km (Rs 483 crore), Hyderabad-Bangalore Expressway, Kanpur-Lucknow Expressway, Ring Road Expressway at Amaravati, and Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway of 600 km (Rs 2,125 crore). NV Shetty, Chairman of the conference and COO of GMR Highways Ltd, said, the highways sector contributes about 5-6 per cent of the country’s GDP growth. This is largely driven by the initiatives of the Government. Cameron Meredith Jersey
Power Ministry Undertake Several Steps to Ease the Process of “Getting Electricity” Connection
Ministry of Power has undertaken several reforms measures to ease the process of ‘Getting Electricity’ over a period of last two years. The Government has made it mandatory to provide electricity connection within fifteen days to the consumers in normal conditions. A simplified procedure for getting electricity connection has been adopted after detailed discussions with Delhi and Maharashtra Discoms and other concerned agencies. DERC has made the necessary changes to allow LT connection up to 150 KVA and had also rationalized the tariff for the same in 2015. Ministry has also stipulated time for each step required for providing the connection. Within three days of online form submission for electricity connection, the field inspection of the site will be done, which will lead to the process to estimate preparation, load sanction and intimation for fee deposit to be completed in next four days. After this, installation work including meter and flow of electricity will be done in eight days, thus completing the whole process in 15 days. While applying for connection, consumers in Delhi and Mumbai will be required to provide the self certification for type of consumer along with ID proof and premises ownership. An amendment to CEA notification have been made to waive off electrical approval for 11 KV installation carried out by Discoms and allowing self certification by Discoms engineers in such cases. It has been agreed by the Discoms that reliability of Power supply will be improved progressively each year till international benchmark are achieved. An amendment in CEA notification for allowing installation of transformers up to 500 KVA on double pole structure has also been made. Apart from these initiatives, a simplified online mechanism for Right of Way (RoW) approval process for electrical works is also under process. These measures will drastically reduced the time taken for getting an electricity connection and will benefited citizens and industry alike. Felix Potvin Jersey
Odisha targets 489 km national highways network in FY17
The state government has targeted to add 489 km of national highways (NH) to the existing network in 2016-17. During 2014-15 and 2015-16, 867.39 km of NH was developed in the state. A high-level review meeting held on Wednesday revealed that 22 national highways are passing through Odisha after renaming of the roads.These high ways include the NH-16, 18, 20, 26, 49, 53, 55, 57, 59, 63,130C,143, 149, 153B, 157, 220, 316, 326, 326A, 353, 516 & 520. The total length of these roads running through the state is around 4,849.42 km out of which total 3,387 km of roads have been assigned to state public works department (PWD) and 1,462.42 km have been assigned to National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for development. Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi emphasized on development of the NH from Vizag to Jagdalpur, which connects Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.The road passes through Sunki-Koraput-Jeypore-Nabrangour-Buriguma-Kotpad in Odisha. Padhi also emphasized on expediting the works in Vijayawada-Ranchi corridor connecting Andhra Pradesh, Odisha & Jharkhand. NHAI has completed development of 610 km and work for 529 km is under progress. The bidding process for around 243 km is completed and the projects for development 596 km are in the pipeline. The chief secretary has emphasized on fixing monthly targets for completion. The state government had submitted 44 projects to the union ministry of roads and highways with an estimated cost of Rs 1,047 crore under Central Road Fund out of which the ministry has given in-principle approval to 12 projects worth Rs 400.97 crore. Apart from this, the state had submitted two projects with an estimated cost of Rs 148 crore under Inter State Connectivity Scheme and two projects with an estimated cost of Rs 198 crore under roads of economic importance scheme. All these four projects have received in-principle approval from the ministry. Red Schoendienst Authentic Jersey
Rise in bids for highways under hybrid annuity model
Noting recent positive trends in the Indian highways sector, American investment banking firm Jefferies on Wednesday said there was an increase in bids under the government’s hybrid annuity model for roads building. “Macro developments suggest positive trends in the sector with pickup in execution. Recent bids in Hybrid Annuity model (HAM) in May-June has seen participation increasing from two-four players to seven-eight players as risk-reward is favourable,” the Jefferies India said in a report. “Consequently, bids have become slightly aggressive as competition is becoming cognizant of the favourable risk-reward scenario in HAM versus EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) versus BOT (build-operate-transfer) model,” it said. “Execution was strong in May at a 22 km per day completion run-rate, and will be closely watched for in the coming months,” it added. Under HAM approved earlier this year, the government commits up to 40 per cent of the project cost over a period and hands the project to the developer to start work, clearing the way for restarting work on stalled road projects. Noting that non-performing assets (NPAs), or bad loans, have come down in the construction equipment segment suggesting borrower cash flows are improving, the report said construction gear growth was exponential during January-June this year due to public spending in the road sector and improvement in National Highway Authority of India’s (NHAI) payment cycle. The NHAI in March invited bids for five projects under the hybrid annuity model. “A total of six projects extending up to 209 km and worth Rs 41 billion were awarded by NHAI in May 2016. Of this, five have been on HAM and only one on EPC mode. “This is in line with ministry’s commentary on awarding close to 85-90 per cent of the projects on HAM and EPC mode,” Jefferies said. “Media reports suggest that the ministry is working on a complete list of projects which it intends to award to achieve the 25,000 km overall FY17 target to lend more credibility to the target,” it added. The government has set a target of constructing 25,000 km of national highways during 2016-17 — up from 10,000 km in 2015-16. According to the Road Transport and Highways Ministry, of the total length of national highways targeted for award, 15,000 km would fall under NHAI, while the remaining 10,000 km will be under the purview of the ministry and National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation. The ministry said the last fiscal had many positive outcomes such as construction of 6,000 km of national highways, which marked a year-on-year increase of nearly 36 per cent. “The speeding up of road projects has been made possible due to several policy interventions which include the ministry being empowered to decide mode of delivery, increased threshold for project approval, enhanced inter-ministerial coordination exit policy,” an official statement said. Tyler Higbee Jersey
Haryana govt forms action plan to strengthen roads
Haryana government today said that an action plan of Rs 1,818 crore has been formulated to strengthen 5,605 km long roads in the state during the current financial year. During the 2016-17 financial year, special attention would be paid on fixing cat eyes and reflectors at dangerous curves of roads so as to prevent road accidents, Haryana Public Works (Building and Roads) Minister Rao Narbir Singh said. He said the department has prepared an advance action plan for works to be conducted throughout the year. In 2015-16, a action plan for 4,709 km long roads was prepared, Singh said. He further claimed that a WhatsApp number will also be launched in the next six months. Anyone can send a photograph of a damaged road and it will be repaired by the department within 72 hours. Singh said in the 21-months regime of the present government, work of strengthening of roads has taken place in the state. Haryana is celebrating its golden jubilee this year and my effort is to provide people with better road network, the minister said. Under the present BJP government, 12 highways have been declared as national highways, whereas in the ten-year regime of the previous government the state got only one national highway, singh said. Dennis Cholowski Jersey
Arunachal may lose civilian airport: ACS alleges
Arunachal Civil Society (ACS) Chairman Patey Tayum on Monday questioned the intention of Chief Minister Kalikho Pul endorsing Karsingsa for Green Field Airport (GFA). Chief Minister reportedly wrote a letter to the Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati. In a press conference held on Monday, ACS Chairman claimed that Chief Minister had written the letter in the wake of deadline served by Arun Kumar, Joint Secretary Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India wherein Kumar sought ‘standpoint’ of the state government on proposed GFA at Hollongi on May 23, 2016 and asked the government to respond within a month. However, the letter purportedly written by the CM does not have his signature or letterhead. Armed with document which he claimed was accessed from the department concern, Tayum stated that CM’s letter was confusing and detrimental to development in spite of knowledge about the deadline. Bilal Powell Womens Jersey
Power Grid’s Rs1 trillion expansion to back Modi’s economic, strategic goals
State-owned power transmission company Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd will spend Rs.1 trillion over four years to expand its network and connect areas affected by left-wing extremism, facilitating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goals on village electrification, uninterrupted power for all and development of the North-east, said chairman and managing director I.S. Jha. Power Grid’s spending is also reshaping the electricity market as multiple transmission lines from power plants in different geographies with different cost structures to the same customer base offer more power purchasing choices for industrial consumers and distribution companies, breaking the monopoly that is natural to actors in this capital-intensive infrastructure industry. Power Grid on Monday put into operation a 186 circuit km (ckm) 400 kilovolt (kV) transmission line from Ranchi in Jharkhand to Gaya in Bihar enabling an alternative power supply line to eastern Uttar Pradesh as well as to north-eastern states, said Jha. Power Grid already has a network connecting Gaya to Kanpur and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and to the North-east. The Ranchi-Gaya transmission line passes through the hilly districts of Lohardaga, Latehar and Chatra in Jharkhand. The state police have reported left-wing extremist activities in this region. “Having multiple supply lines will improve the quality of power. Increasingly, the role of transmission is changing from mere evacuation of power to developing the electricity market. Better availability of power and choices of purchase will attract more consumers,” said Jha. In the next two years alone, the company expects to add 84,500 ckm to its existing network of 130,000 ckm. Power Grid also has major diversification plans. It will start installing telecom towers along its transmission route, which will complement its optic-fibre cable network and generate more revenue from services to telecom companies. The company is also planning to expand overseas by bidding for global transmission projects jointly with private players. The idea is to scale up the global presence from consultancy services at present to engineering, design, procurement and construction. Eventually, it will explore the possibility of ownership of transmission assets abroad. In the domestic market, Power Grid will participate in auctions to be held by states for intra-state transmission projects, branching out from its core business of inter-state transmission. State governments are expected to bid out projects with a cost of about Rs.1.5 trillion in the next few years, some of which will be in smart cities, said Jha, an electrical engineer from National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur, who became Power Grid chairman in November. Experts said that developing smart cities will benefit all utilities in the energy value chain. “Historically, power distribution and retail supply segment have been under invested. Developing smart cities would see organisational focus and investments into this. It will ensure reliable and quality power and better customer interface, enabling utilities to improve price realization and in financial turnaround. It also improves upstream operational efficiency in transmission,” said Sambitosh Mohapatra, partner, energy utilities and mining, PwC India. The company, in which the central government holds a 57.9% stake, reported a net profit of Rs.6,027 crore for 2015-16 on a turnover of Rs.21,281 crore, an improvement of 21% in net profit from a year ago. Blake Swihart Womens Jersey
‘Land allotment for 4 industrial cities in DMIC from October’
The Centre will start allocating land in all the four industrial cities being implemented under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project from October, a top official said today. “Land allotment for industries will begin in October this year for anyone who wants to put up an industry. We are looking at anchor investors, we are looking for some big industries to come up but we are open to all industries,” Assocham said quoting Alkesh Kumar Sharma, CEO and MD, DMIC Development Corporation Ltd. The four industrial cities that are being implemented under DMIC project include – Dholera Special Investment Region (Gujarat), Shendra Bidkin Industrial Park & Dighi Port Industrial Area (Maharashtra), Integrated Industrial Township (Greater Noida-Uttar Pradesh) and Vikram Udyogpuri (Ujjain-Madhya Pradesh). Sharma said the land pricing and disposal policies have already been finalised in Gujarat and it will be also finalised in a week’s time in Maharashtra. “We will also be finalising it in Greater Noida and in Ujjain within this month so that by September-October we can start allotting land,” he said. He informed that DMICDC had already developed a detailed land use plan and that it will also soon come up with a mechanism whereby one can apply online and the land shall be allotted. “You can identify a plot on the Google maps, fill in and you will see complete details of the plot that this plot is for industrial purpose, the size of the plot is 20 acres and this is the type of industry you can set up,” he added. The type of industries that have been identified for these industrial cities are the ones that are not highly polluting unlike chemical factories and others, Sharma said. Environment clearances had been obtained from the Ministry of Environment and Forests for all the projects, he said, adding that DMICDC would be following the best global practices be it transportation, power and water supply, water conservation and sewage treatment. Kurt Warner Authentic Jersey
Finally Kerala hops onto infra fast lane
It is often said — only in half jest — that foreign tourists take about 12 hours to reach Kerala and about the same time to reach their destination within the state. Reason: the narrowest, most potholeinfested highways in India. Kerala is better off than many states on a number of social and economic indicators, but infrastructure is not one of them. The state is also a tourism hotspot, blessed with a glorious mix of beaches, backwaters and hills and lovely climate, but tourism-related infrastructure has long been in a shambles. Kerala’s economic landscape is freckled with such disconcerting dichotomy. It has three international airports — a fourth one about to be commissioned at Kannur — but the roads connecting them are terrible. It has many upscale hotels and super specialty hospitals but the quality of drinking water and waste management are awful. But change is in the air, finally. Kerala Finance Minister TM Thomas Issac, who presented the first budget of the Left Democratic Government (LDF) last week, announced an anti-recession investment package of Rs 12,000 crore to be spent entirely on infrastructure projects. Time to Hurry Issac had said the state is in a hurry to build its roads, bridges, ports and railways. “We have no time to lose,” he said before he presented the budget, referring to the shadow on Kerala’s remittance economy due to the economic woes in the Gulf that has already left many workers out of jobs. To be sure, the state has been making aggressive investments in infrastructure in the past decade. After the completion of the Cochin International Airport Project — the first airport in the country to be built with private participation — the state launched major tourism projects by roping in nonresident Keralites. A chain of large hotels, shopping, malls and convention centres sprouted in different parts of the state rapidly. Medical tourism got a fillip when NRI money was pumped into building super specialty hospitals. Soon after, the central government did its bit. A slew of projects, including major ventures such as the LNG Terminal project, the Vallarpadam Container Transhipment Terminal and the expansion of the BPCL refinery, formerly the Kochi Refineries Ltd were launched. The only hitch was all the projects were located in Kochi, limiting the scope of development. The current phase of infrastructure development bears no such inconsistency (see Kerala’s Infrastructure Push). It is spread throughout the state and covers a raft of sectors ranging from airports to ports to roads. In ports, much is expected from the development of the Vizinjam Container Port by Adani. The government hopes that the Vizinjam port would offer competition to Colombo port as it has a natural depth of nearly 20 metres, and ergo, allow even very large container carriers to anchor at the port (the previous Congress-led government signed the deal with Adani). Work on the Kochi Metro Rail project is progressing at a brisk pace. The first phase of 18 km of the Rs 5,100-crore project would be completed by early 2017. Plans are already underway to launch “light metro” projects in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode. The good news is that the drubbing the Congress-led UDF Government received in the assembly election this May has not changed the big picture. A Left front government is not usually known to be business friendly.But Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan seems to be not cut from the same cloth as his other Marxist colleagues. After his first meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he made it clear that his government will give top priority to the completion of two long pending projects, the GAIL Pipeline project connecting Kochi with Mangalore and the widening of the highways. Still, the achingly slow pace of widening of highways in the state is a grim reminder of the challenges before the state government. The delays were due to opposition to land acquisition in many areas. Finally, the previous government decided to limit the width of highways at 45 metres. The central government has given into the state’s demand on the width. Likewise, in the case of the GAIL project, it was the opposition from some areas in Malappuram and Kozhikode that delayed the project. Another worry is the terrible state of finances. Kerala is grappling with rising revenue deficit and slow growth of tax revenue. No wonder the budget offered little leeway for measures to step up capital expenditure. That means the Rs 12,000 crore for infrastructure will be raised outside the budgetary framework, by floating a special purpose vehicle and making use of the SEBI and RBI approved financial measures. Now or Never Despite these challenges, development of infrastructure is inevitable. In its election manifesto, the LDF promised to create 25 lakh jobs in five years. The road to that target is through infrastructure. Kerala does not have much land to spare for industrialisation. The state also faces a severe shortage of power. The only way to attract industrialists is to create good infrastructure. Industry leaders say the government should focus on road development and better waste management techniques. “We have to urgently address these two problems,” says Jose Dominic, CEO of CGH Earth group of hotels. He says the tourism industry in the state which reached a peak in the early 2000 is witnessing a major slowdown. Cyriac Davies, MD, Kitco Ltd, says there is no shortage of money or technology. “What is needed now is the political will.” Wade Boggs Jersey