Airlines seek weather updates ‘well in advance’
Airlines today urged the Civil Aviation Ministry to help put in place a mechanism for providing weather updates “well in advance”, a day after more than two dozen flights to the national capital were diverted due to inclement weather conditions. A host of issues, including about weather forecast system, were discussed during a meeting of executives from domestic airlines and airport operators with Ministry officials here today. Sources said the airlines sought the Ministry’s help to have a system at the major airports whereby they can get information about “weather conditions well in advance”. Getting an update at the earliest would help in minimising disruptions to flight schedules, they added. In the wake of bad weather, more than two dozen flights to the Delhi airport were diverted and many others delayed yesterday. During the meeting, the airlines proposed utilisation of unused airports in the vicinity of major aerodromes for landing purpose in case of emergency situations and diversions, sources said. Besides, the carriers have sought expeditious clearance with respect to new directors and crew members, they added. Among others, there were deliberations on increasing the facilities for night parking of planes at various airports. Representatives from the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), Airports Authority of India (AAI), Air India and operators of Delhi and Mumbai airports, among others, are believed to have participated in today’s meeting. Jet Airways, SpiceJet, IndiGo, GoAir and Jet Lite make up the FIA. Airlines are facing issues at various airports, including at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. They vary from congestion to delay in getting ATC clearance which are adversely impacting the on-time performance of many carriers, sources had said. Among others, at Chennai and Kolkata airports, airlines are facing infrastructure constraints, mainly since terminal capacity has not kept pace with the increase in aircraft movements. Aleksi Heponiemi Jersey
Tirupati Airport to begin international operations by June end
International operations from Tirupati Airport will begin by June end, with initial flights to the US and the middle-east (via New Delhi), a senior Andhra Pradesh government official said today. Customs and other procedural formalities are being completed at the newly-developed airport for the launch of international operations, Principal Secretary for Energy, Infrastructure and Investment, Ajay Jain said. “To begin with, we will have flights to the US and the middle-east (via New Delhi) and subsequently to other international destinations,” Jain told a press conference here. Vijayawada airport too would have international flights once the interim terminal building gets ready, he said. While the interim terminal building was originally scheduled to be completed by October but Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has asked the contractor to finish it by August in time for the Krishna Pushkarams. The existing airport at Rajamahendravaram was being expanded to enable operation of larger aircraft like the Airbus A-319 and A-320, Jain added. “We have acquired 857 acres of land at a cost of Rs 350 crore for expansion of the runway. The Airports Authority of India will spend Rs 120 crore on the expansion work,” he added. About the problems in acquiring land for the proposed greenfield International Airport at Bhogapuram near Visakhapatnam, the Principal Secretary said farmers in the region were now coming forward to part with their lands under the land pooling scheme proposed by the state government. “About 97 per cent of farmers are ready to give their land as we are offering them a best compensation package. So far, we have got consent from farmers for giving 350 acres of land. “The Bhogapuram Airport Ltd, the special purpose vehicle constituted to develop the airport, is securing Rs 1,500 crore from the Hudco (Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd) and the bidding process will start in June,” Jain said. Dwayne Allen Womens Jersey
GRMs of oil marketing cos may recover on strong demand: Report
Gross refining margins (GRMs) of public-sector oil marketing companies may recover on account of strong demand and higher marketing margins, says a report. According to stock brokerage ICICI Securities, GRMs of oil marketing companies (OMCs) in the first quarter of 2016-17 so far is sharply lower compared to the estimates in the last fiscal. While the first quarter GRMs estimated for state-run HPCL are marginally lower, those for other public sector entitiesBharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation are higher than the forecast for whole of the current fiscal, it added. “We are hopeful of recovery in GRMs as recent data suggests strong global oil demand growth,” ICICI Securities said in a report. “Higher marketing margins than assumed are also not ruled out,” it added. The brokerage has estimated GRMs of the OMCs to be at USD 4.3-5.5 a barrel, which is 11-28 per cent lower than their 2015-16 estimates, the report said. GRM generally refer to the difference between the total value of petroleum products coming out of an oil refinery and the cost of crude oil. “Our assumption of OMCs’ 2016-17 GRMs are conservative and we estimate that their first quarter GRMs have been boosted by inventory gain of USD 1.1/bbl,” the report said. Julius Nattinen Womens Jersey
India seeks rights to operate Iran oil field
India has sought a discovered oilfield from Iran for raising crude oil imports from the Persian Gulf nation as part of efforts to widen economic and energy ties post lifting of sanctions. Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the nation’s largest oil firm, has proposed to Iran that it be given rights to operate and produce crude oil from the discovered field to help move away from buyer-seller relationship to a strategic partnership, sources privy to the development said. The oil produced from the field can then be shipped home, the IOC has said. IOC had last fiscal imported 1.2 million tons of crude oil from Iran. In the fiscal year that began from April 1, it is looking to raise it by at least three-fold. Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Iran was aimed at boosting trade and commerce between the two countries. His trip came just months after lifting of international sanctions on Iran following Tehran’s historic nuclear deal with the Western powers over its contentious atomic programme. Besides IOC, ONGC Videsh Ltd has also sought two discovered fields from the 16 fields that Iran is likely to put on auction shortly. The fields sought by OVL, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), is besides the Farzad-B offshore field for which it is in advanced talks to secure developmental rights. OVL had in 2008 discovered the Farzad-B field in the Persian Gulf. The field holds 12.5 Trillion cubic feet of recoverable reserves. Sources said Iran has so far not responded to the requests by the Indian firms. It has, however, shown willingness to give Farzad-A, which holds 283 billion cubic meters of reserves. The field besides holding smaller reserves is more challenging, OVL feels. Sources said India may import as much as 20 million tonnes of crude oil from Iran in 2016-17 fiscal, up from about 11 million tonnes in the previous year. This follows lifting of sanctions against Iran in January. Till 2010-11, Iran was the second biggest supplier of crude oil to India after Saudi Arabia. Fresh US sanctions in 2010 led to imports, which were 18.5 million tonnes in 2010-11, to fall to 11 million tonnes. Iraq is now the second biggest supplier of oil to India. Sources said India has also expressed interest in investing in chemicals, petrochemicals and fertilizer plants if Iran provided natural gas at low prices. It also is looking at setting up an ammonia/urea plant in Chabahar Free Trade Zone with long-term off-take of urea to India. While Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) and Essar Oil Ltd – the biggest Indian buyers of Iranian oil – are likely to maintain buying at around 5 million tonnes each, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) may begin importing oil from the Persian Gulf nation. HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL) has indicated it will buy a small quantity with an option to raise volumes. In addition, private refiner Reliance Industries is seeking to buy 5-6 million tons of Iranian oil, mainly heavy grades. India imports about 189 million tonnes of crude oil to meet about 80 per cent of its oil needs. Saudi Arabia sold about 38 million tonnes of oil to India in 2015-16, while Iraq supplied 33 million tonnes. Jose Altuve Womens Jersey
Government seeks bids for oil, gas fields in first auction since 2010
Government is putting up for auction nearly four dozen small oil and gas fields in the first such sale in six years, the country’s oil ministry said in a newspaper advertisement on Tuesday. A successful auction of the small oil and gas fields is seen as crucial to a recently announced hydrocarbon policy, which India hopes will unlock energy resources worth $40 billion by simplifying rules and offering pricing incentives. The world’s fourth-biggest oil and gas consumer imports nearly three-quarters of its energy requirements, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target of cutting its fuel import dependency to two-thirds by 2022 and to half by 2030. India is auctioning a total of 46 oil and gas fields, the oil ministry said, with 26 on land, 18 offshore in shallow water and two in deep water. The deadline for submitting the bids is on Oct. 31, with companies free to try for more than one exploration block. The mostly small, marginal discoveries on offer were originally controlled by two state-owned exploration companies, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Oil India Ltd. The fields have remained undeveloped for years due to their small size and the high cost of development. The current low crude oil prices – now around $48 a barrel – will also likely make it hard for the government to attract bids for the fields. Some exploration consultants have also criticised the revenue-sharing model being used by India as most countries auction oil and gas blocks based on a cost-recovery model. In a revenue-sharing model a company operating an oil and gas field has to share revenue from any sales with the government from first production. In a cost-recovery model a company starts sharing income with the government only once its exploration and development costs have been covered. Jaquiski Tartt Authentic Jersey
Nitin Gadkari’s home state Maharashtra to get most road projects
Maharashtra , the home state of Union highways minister Nitin Gadkari , will get the lion’s share of road projects this year, which will be executed by the road transport and highways ministry . According to an official order issued by the ministry on Friday, officials have been allowed to sanction projects with expenses up to Rs 20,000 crore for Maharashtra during this year. The total approved sanction ceiling for building highways for 2016-17 for all states is pegged at Rs 42,208 crore. These works don’t include projects that are undertaken by National Highways Authority of India. “The projects sanctioned this year will be executed in the next 2-3 years, and hence, the entire allocation will be released in installments. Maharashtra has got a good share since many stretches in the state have been declared as new national highways in the past two years,” said a ministry official. He added that the original demand from the state was Rs 40,000 crore investment, but it was reduced to half. Cole Cassels Womens Jersey
NHAI to repay loan to banks even in stuck projects
Bringing some relief to lenders that have financed ‘languishing’ projects, NHAI has decided to pay back major share of the loan to banks after carrying out independent assessment of the work done. Such projects will then be, under public-privatepartnership (PPP), taken over by the authority for their completion. Sources said NHAI Board, the apex body with representatives from different ministries, has approved the proposal and it will soon be sent to the cabinet secretariat for its assent to carry out necessary changes in the model concession agreement ( MCA). Such a mechanism is likely to bring relief for bankers in at least 7-8 languishing projects. In the existing MCA, lenders get no compensation in case a project is terminated during construction period. They are entitled to get 90 per cent of the remaining debt only in case a contract is terminated after completion of the project. “We have prepared a policy proposal on this to take forward the works and also to reduce chances of huge number of litigations. Some portion of the amount lent by banks will be recovered,” NHAI chairman Raghav Chandra told. He said the payment released by NHAI, based on independent evaluation, will be transferred to the escrow account of each project and the lender will be free to decide about usage of the funds.
Infrastructure projects to increase use of geosynthetics: NHIDCL
Given the life-extension benefits and durability that geosynthetics provide, they are increasingly being deployed for road projects in regions with high soil erosion, an NHIDCL official said on Thursday. “For accelerating usage of Geosynthetics in road construction, the Ministry of Textiles is incentivising their usage by providing a subsidy,” Anand Kumar, Managing Director, National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation, said at a global summit on Geosynthetics here. Highlighting the manifold applications of Geosynthetics, he said there is a need to sensitise on the advantages of its adoption and their positive impact from a lifecycle cost-benefit perspective. Other advantages, according to him, include enhanced efficiencies, quality and a reduced carbon footprint. He emphasised on indigenous development, constant research and continuous propagation of the material for its increased usage. Arvind Ltd, Executive Director, Punit Lalbhai said Geosynthetics has played a key role in infrastructure development in countries. Brian Schou Nielsen, Director, Fibertex Private said its global market was growing at 4-5 per cent per annum with India and China growing at 10 per cent. Nick Kwiatkoski Jersey
13 new smart cities announced; Lucknow, Chandigarh make it to the list
Lucknow, Faridabad, Dharmashala, Chandigarh, Raipur, New Town Kolkata, Panaji, Ranchi, Bhagalpur (in Bihar), and Warangal (in Telangana) are among the 13 new cities that have been selected under the Smart City scheme. The other cities in the list which were finalised through a “fast track competition” are Port Blair, Imphal, and Agartala. However, Uttarakhand capital Dehradun could not make it to the group. Earlier, the names of 20 cities were announced and government had started the “fast track competition” for 23 cities from an equal number of states since none of the cities nominated by them figured in the first list of top 10 smart cities. While announcing the new names on Tuesday, Union Urban Development minister, M Venkaiah Naidu, stated that these cities have proposed investments of Rs 30,299 crore. The earlier 20 cities had proposed an investment of Rs 50,560 crore. Naidu said the cities selected in this round have improved their earlier plans in areas including better profiling of respective cities, ensuring consistency between citizens’ aspirations and action plans, more feasible resource mobilization plans and presenting a more coordinated and integrated picture of how individual projects will contribute to the area level changes. The 10 cities that could not make the grade in this fast track competition will get another opportunity to revise their plans and submit them for evaluation in the second round of regular competition to be held by the end of June. TJ Brodie Authentic Jersey
Cancer-causing substance in pizzas, burgers takes life out of Jubilant, Britannia, Westlife
Shares of franchisees of quick service restaurants (QSRs) such as Domino’s and McDonald’s dropped up to 10 per cent in Tuesday’s trade after the Union health ministry asked for a detailed report on the findings of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE ) that suggested presence of potassium bromate and potassium iodate in most bakery products. Potassium bromate can cause cancer and is banned in most parts of the world, but not in India. Potassium iodate, on the other hand, can cause thyroid-related diseases. According to the CSE report, KFC (part of the Yum chain of restaurants), Pizza Hut (Yum chain), Subway Systems and Green House & Hestsoft Foods (Slice of Italy) have denied use of potassium bromate or potassium iodate. Breadmaker Britannia Industries, too, has denied its use in its products. But no response was received from Jubilant FoodWorks (Domino’s) so far. The bread of McDonald’s McAloo tikki Burger had 1.23 ppm of potassium bromate/iodate, the study found. Shares of Westlife Development, a BSE-listed franchise of McDonald’s, slumped 19.9 per cent to hit a low of Rs 200, before staging a smart recovery. The stock was down 1 per cent at Rs 217.35 at the time of writing of this report. Jubilant FoodWorks dropped 12.35 per cent to hit a low of Rs 975. The sample of Domino’s Margherita Pizza had 1.23 ppm and 1.18 ppm of potassium bromate/iodate, respectively. Britannia Industries was down 1.28 per cent at Rs 2,646. CSE’s pollution monitoring laboratory (PML) found residues of potassium bromate/iodate in over 84 per cent of bread and bakery samples sourced from Delhi. “The use of potassium iodate as a flour treatment agent in breads should not be allowed by FSSAI. It is not recommended as a flour treatment agent in several countries due to possible higher intake of iodine, which can potentially affect the functioning of the thyroid gland,” it said. Josh Smith Womens Jersey