Apathy of NHAI, government: Plea in Kerala HC
A petition has been filed in the Kerala High Court against the delay on the part of the state government and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) in implementing various provisions of the Road Safety Act-2007. The petition also alleged the NHAI and the government had failed to remove unauthorised advertisements and flex boards along the national highways in the state. Kochi-native D B Binu in his petition said it is the responsibility of the state government to maintain and manage NH-47, including steps to ensure clear vision for motorists. As per an agreement signed by the NHAI and a private agency for beautification of the Edappally-Vyttila stretch of NH-47, no advertisement/hoarding should be put up on the stretch, causing distraction to motorists. Austin Ekeler Womens Jersey
Niti Aayog wants its chief in NHAI Board
Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have emphasised on the mantra for breaking “silos” of individual departments for team work, but bureaucrats and departments are trying hard to protect their turfs. In a recent example, government’s Niti Aayog has said that the chief executive officer of this think tank body should be included in the NHAI Board besides two other independent members. The road transport ministry has proposed to delegate the power of appraisal and approval of highway projects to NHAI Board under the next generation avatar of Vajpayee’s Golden Quadrilateral programme, Bharat Mala. This massive highway development programme will cover nearly 25,000 kilometres with an investment of at least Rs 3.5 lakh crore. During Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime NHAI Board was delegated the authority to appraise and approve individual highway projects after the Cabinet gave one time go ahead for the entire highway development programme. NHAI board had secretaries of finance, economic affairs, highway ministry and the erstwhile Planning Commission. But this model of faster clearance was changed during UPA and almost all individual projects went through layers of appraisal and finally were to be put before Cabinet for approval. TOI has learnt that finance ministry has said that since the highways ministry has already been delegated more financial power to appraise and approve bigger highway projects, where is the need to delegate more power. This paper has also learnt that to address these observations, Transport Bhawan is reworking the composition of NHAI board by incorporating Niti Aayog CEO and two independent directors in the board. Quick appraisal and approval of highway projects are required to push award and ultimately the construction of highways to increase the pace of road construction. The government has been struggling to cross the mark of 20 km per day, against the target of building 40 km daily. Eric Rowe Womens Jersey
Bangalore:TOLL COLLECTION UP ON NHAI BOOTHS BUT ROADS CRY OUT FOR ATTENTION
The toll collection at booths erected by the National Highway Authority of India has gone up over the years, but there has been no corresponding relief for motorists on the roads. There are many stretches which are nightmares for motorists to drive on, with many accidents being reported in the absence of proper safety measures. The purpose of toll collection by NHAI is to build a good network of roads between cities and bring down freight charges. The roads from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu, which provides the ports for the state’s exports, are in poor condition, adding to the burden of industrialists in the state. A recent report released by the central government shows that the total toll collection in the state in the year 2016-17 till December 16 was Rs 217.39 crore; the total collection made in 2014-15 fiscal was Rs 216.94 crore. The toll collection for the year 2015-16 was around Rs 268.37 crore. Despite the increase in collection and allocation of funds for building of roads, there are many stretches on the highways that are crying for attention. The stretch connecting Bengaluru to Northern-Karnataka, fast evolving as an industrial hub, is one such example and could do with better infrastructure.
Allow global bids only for projects with land, green clearances: Amitabh Kant
In a bid to make India’s vast infrastructure sector more attractive to foreign investors, a senior government official has suggested that India open only projects that have secured land acquisition and environment clearances for international bids. “As the infrastructure sector opens up in India…. it is important that when many of these projects are structured, they are de-risked with all approvals, including land and environment, taken upfront and put in the SPV (special purpose vehicle) and then the SPV itself should be bid out, so that international companies can come in and play a major role and they don’t have to run around getting clearances,” said Amitabh Kant, chief executive officer of NITI Aayog. Kant was addressing a seminar on Quality Infrastructure: Japanese Investment in India, organised by New Delhi-based think tank Centre for Policy Research and the Japanese embassy. Instances of foreign infrastructure projects languishing for want of environmental clearances are common in India. Projects slowing down or coming to a halt due to the lack of land acquisition permissions are also common. Land acquisition problems have dogged the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) Project, under which freight railway lines will be constructed along the Western Corridor between Delhi and Mumbai and the Eastern Corridor between Ludhiana, Delhi and Son Nagar. The DFC is an important part of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) initiative, which is an India-Japan collaborative project for comprehensive infrastructure development to create India’s largest industrial belt zone, linking the industrial parks and harbours of the six states between Delhi and Mumbai in order to promote foreign export and direct investment. Under the DMIC initiative, plans are also being implemented to create industrial parks and logistics bases with well-developed infrastructure up to 150km on either side of the Western Corridor. Besides this, India is seeking investment in roads, ports, railways and other areas. In his speech, Kant said Japanese companies in India should be provided with a conducive ecosystem to “enable them to create top class quality infrastructure in India because it will be very difficult for us to create good quality infrastructure of the next century”. “India’s future for infrastructure lies with Japan and in many ways the future of Japan does not lie in Japan, it lies in India,” he said. Kant also urged Japanese firms to be “cost-competitive” and take more risks in India. “I would like to say that Japanese companies should take more risks and they need to become cost-competitive…by relocating their manufacturing bases to India,” he said. Citing the example of Canada’s Bombardier, Kant said that the firm had created a manufacturing base in India and was producing Metro train coaches for the Indian as well as the Australian markets. Kevin Kiermaier Authentic Jersey
Jaipur:Ministers to take up joint venture contract’s termination with Nitin Gadkari
To resolve the long-pending Ring Road issue, two state ministers will meet Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday in New Delhi. In the meeting important discussions regarding termination of Jose-Supreme joint venture (JV) contract and appointment the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for construction of 47-km Ring Road project will be made. A senior JDA official informed, “Representatives of existing firm and bankers will too be present in the meeting. Final negotiations will be done in the presence of minister.” The JDA has recently sought legal opinion regarding terminating the firm. The advocate general (AG) has suggested termination of the contract after providing it the expenditure spent by the firms. The decision has to be taken regarding payment of expenditures. As no concrete decision to terminate the firm till date , the project is getting delayed continuously and is all set to miss the June 2018 deadline. After getting assurance of Centre’s support from Union minister Nitin Gadkari, the empowered committee recently decided to terminate the contract of San Jose-Supreme. However, there are possibilities that these firms might approach court and this is the reason JDA consulting law department to avoid any future hassles. “The Centre has directed the state government to forward the proposal after resolving the dispute between both the firms. After this, discussions on proposal to appoint the NHAI will be done by the Centre. We will also inform chief minister Vasundra Raje in this regard,” added an official source. Presently, work on 47km Ring Road, which will connect Ajmer Road to Agra Road, is stalled due to infighting of concessionaire. In June 2011, JDA had selected the joint venture of San Jose-Supreme as final bidder for Ring Road project. As per contract, the awarded firm had to complete work in 24 months. However, even after five and half years, the firms have spent only Rs 78 crore against sanctioned Rs 890 crore. Max Scherzer Jersey
NHAI pledges to complete ingress point in six months
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on Monday pledged to complete the ingress point project on Mumbai-Agra highway near hotel Seven Heaven within six months. The TOI had in its February 24 edition reported how motorists were using the puncture at the ingress point to take the highway towards the Mumbai direction or taking the service road from it in the absence of safety arrangements. Senior NHAI officials, who did not wish to be quoted, said the project will be completed on the engineering procurement and construction (EPS) basis. An official said the contract of the company that had constructed the 60-km stretch of the highway from Pimpalgaon to Gonde was terminated in February last year. “As a result, the additional work taken up by the company for the convenience of motorists was left incomplete. The NHAI will finish it now on the the EPS basis, which is a contract arrangement to make all responsible for activities from designing, procuring, constructing to commissioning and handing over of the project to end user or owners,” the official said. The ingress point is under construction for more than three years. In the absence of the ingress point, the motorists who cannot take the highway from Indiranagar have to drive for nearly 5km to take it. In the meantime, some motorists have removed the concrete slab that blocked the incomplete ingress point and are using the puncture to take the highway. The highway, passing through Nashik city, is more of an elevated structure of about 12km comprising flyovers and underpasses, which descend to the ground level in three spots. Thus the speed of vehicles using the elevated structure is extremely high, considering that there is no obstruction to the vehicles. The puncture of the incomplete ingress point used by motorists could prove risky as vehicles simply enter the highway, which catch the motorists on highway unawares. At the same time, many motorists who take the service road from the highway also disturb the traffic on the service road. Four years ago, the widened stretch of the NH-3 passing through the city was thrown open after the completion of the elevated corridor. The widened stretch of the highway has quite a few flyovers, underpasses and bridges between Garware point and Adgaon naka to ensure there is no hindrance to traffic. On completion of the highway, it was noticed that while the rush on service roads along the highway was heavy, the six-lane highway was hardly being used by motorists. If a motorist from the city has to take the Mumbai-Agra highway to go towards Pimpalgaon, Dhule and other places, the only access point were at Dwarka and Mumbai Naka, so a large number of motorists, mainly heavy trucks coming from the Ambad industrial area, had to ply through the service road for nearly five to six km to reach Mumbai Naka or Dwarka to access the highway. Keeping all this in mind, an ingress point was created near Gabriel Company about three years back and opened for motorists. While the problem of motorists (on the stretch between Mumbai Naka and Garware point) of accessing the highway towards Dhule was solved, the problem of motorists towards Mumbai on the other side of the highway is pending. DeShone Kizer Jersey
Lack of space derails AAP plan to redesign roads
The AAP government’s ambitious plan to redesign 11 stretches, along the lines of roads in foreign countries, has hit a roadblock due to “technical faults”. Sources said the roads selected for the project had little or no space to accommodate the proposed redesign. Funds earmarked for the project, Rs 100 crore, have reportedly been surrendered to the ministry. “The road redesigning plan included a non-motorised vehicle lane, designated parking areas, benches and bus shelters and a space for pedestrians to walk. This is not feasible as the width of the road would be compromised. Also, it would create more bottlenecks instead of reducing them, leading to traffic snarls,” a source said. Traffic police had also objected to the move on grounds that it would be a “nightmare” for commuters. The government had announced the plan in 2015 and even sent two of its ministers, Satyendar Jain and Gopal Rai, to Sweden to study the country’s road design.
India is bright spot for infra investment: Global Infrastructure Hub
India is seen as a bright spot for infrastructure investment amid rising protectionist measures around the world, said Bill Brummitt, chief operating officer (COO) of the Global Infrastructure Hub, a platform launched by G20 countries to address global infrastructure deficit. “I think it’s very important that infrastructure markets don’t get caught up in that protectionist mindset and we continue to see international capital flowing across borders, and not just capital, but also expertise,“ Brummitt told ET in an interaction. “Viewed from Australia (where the group is based), India is still seen as a very promising market with a very large market, growing fast, and with a lot of opportunity,“ he added. The Global Infrastructure Hub last year launched its Project Pipeline to provide the private sector with information about government infrastructure projects across the world.“It’s designed to provide a platform where procurement authorities, whether it’s the national authorities at the state or local level, can put projects onto that pipeline, and therefore, raise their visibility with international investors all around the world,“ Brummitt said.The Global Infrastructure Hub currently does not link investors and companies building infrastructure project but is hoping to do so in future. “As Project Pipeline matures, and there are more projects listed on the pipeline and more investors looking at the pipeline, we will be able to keep track of whether the pipeline is actually helping the companies to find projects,“ he said. Brummitt was in India last week to hold talks with officials from the ministries of finance and road transport on the tools the group has developed as a knowledge-sharing platform. Roads and smart cities are two key areas which seem to have a lot of potential in India, Brummitt said. “I’m aware that India has a very large broad PPP (public private partnership) programme in the roads sector at the mo ment. And now India is urbanising, has a huge population, lot of big cities, and I think a lot of people are talking about the smart circles, smart cities agenda in India as well,“ he said. Apart from their focus on PPPs and concession management, the group is also pushing for multilateral development banks like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Asian InfrastructureInvestment Bank to link private investment with public infrastructure projects. “The more we can encourage the multilateral development banks to use their whole range of skills and resources and onthe-ground presence that they have at their disposal, to help encourage and facilitate private finance rather than using their own capital, we think the better off the world would be,“ Brummitt added. Frank Vatrano Jersey
NHAI revives tender process for Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has revived the tender process to turn the existing Bengaluru-Mysuru highway (NH 275) into a six lane expressway, raising hopes among tens of thousands of people travelling between the two cities. The NHAI is awarding the public-private partnership (PPP) project under the hybrid annuity model (DBOT annuity) and has floated request for proposal from private developers, giving them time till April 4 to respond. This is the second attempt by NHAI to put the much-delayed project back on track. The highways authority had, on December 6, cancelled the tender, floated under the DBFOT model, without assigning any reason. However, it is now clear that the tender was cancelled to change the model of contract. The NHAI has divided the project into two packages of 56.2 km (Bengaluru-Nidagatta) and 61.1 km (Nidagatta-Mysuru).The revised estimates show the 117-km stretch project could cost ` . 4,153 crore, a drop by Rs 342 crore from earlier estimates. The land acquisition for the project is already completed. The splitting of the contract, engineers say, will help the NHAI complete the project sooner as two developers will be able to start the work simultaneously from both north and south end of the long stretch. The contractors will require about 24 months to complete the project, and the NHAI may be able to commission in 2020. In the DBFOT model, while the successful bidder bears the entire project cost (minus land acquisition), the hybrid annuity model will involve NHAI funding 60% of the cost, while the partner will bring in the balance equity. The change in the PPP model type, according to an official, also had to do with the market conditions, and the NHAI did not want to confront a situation of fewer developers bidding under the DBFOT model for this highly lucrative project.Hybrid annuity is not only seen as a good model, would also attract several bids, experts say. The banks too will readily respond to fund the project. The developer will not carry any toll risk which will be handled by the NHAI. The developer will get a fixed rate of return for his investment, they say.The Ministry of Highways has assigned top priority to the project in view of the rising vehicular traffic between the two cities in Karnataka. Mysuru is also the home district of chief minister Siddaramaiah. The new expressway, when operational, is expected to cut the travel time between Bengaluru and Mysuru to 90 minutes, and that would cheer the IT industry, among others. Mysuru has not been able to attract investments in the IT sector in spite of Infosys landing there a decade ago. The expressway, when commissioned, will have 10-lanes including two-lane service roads on either side, and three-lane main carriageway in each direction. The expressway will come up between the Panchamukhi temple after NICE road in Bengaluru and Columbia Asia hospital junction in Mysuru. Clay Harbor Womens Jersey
Flyover at Hero Honda Chowk could be opened in two weeks
The under construction flyover at Hero Honda Chowk on the Delhi Gurgaon Expressway is nearing completion and could be opened for commuters and traffic anytime in the next couple of weeks, a senior official of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said on Wednesday. Work on the project commissioned by the NHAI started in February 2015 and was to be completed by July 2015. Earlier, the NHAI officials inspected the site and took stock of the project. The flyover, once complete, is tipped to make the commute between Delhi and Jaipur via Hero Honda Chowk smooth and hassle-free. AK Sharma, project director, NHAI, said, “We are trying to get the flyover up and running for commuters as early as possible. Work is on in full swing and a one portion or flank is almost complete.” The project did face obstacles and was mired in red tape over the last five years, before work finally began in February 2015. The busy Hero Honda Chowk, which draws commuters by the dozens through the day, is considered a choke point as it is crammed with motorists, commuters and even pedestrians. Union minister for road transport and highways, Nitin Gadkari, twice inspected the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway in 2015 after locals complained of commuting woes at Hero Honda Chowk. However, with the project on schedule and expected to be completed soon, the 1.4 km flyover is expected to ease the flow of traffic on the busy Hero Honda Chowk once it opens. Work on the underpass, which is proceeding parallelly, will help pedestrians shuttle between both sides of the chowk easily. The residents of sectors 34 and 37 are also expected to derive a lot of benefits from the underpass, which stretches from Rajiv Chowk to Kherki Daula. Rambir Singh, a resident of Narsinghpur, said, “Hero Honda Chowk has been a commuting nightmare for us. People coming from Iffco Chowk and heading towards Sector 10 often take the wrong service lane between Rajiv Chowk and Hero Honda Chowk causing a chaotic traffic situation.” Jaelen Strong Authentic Jersey