Two mega traffic projects opened in Noida
Noida Authority is leaving no stone unturned in throwing open to the public several infrastructure projects aimed at decongesting the city. A day after a 3-lane bridge was opened to traffic near Film City, another two mega projects—elevated road and underpass—at busy locations in the city were inspected by P K Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Noida Authority on Friday. After conducting a detailed inspection of the facilities, Agarwal found them fit and ordered them open for trials. The facilities will be inaugurated formally at a later date, he said. Speaking to TOI, Agarwal said that the first phase of the city’s maiden elevated road has been completed and is now fit for traffic. “We have thrown it open to traffic before the festival of Diwali as we had promised. We want the public to provide us with feedback, so that we can improve the facility if required,” he said. “The 4-lane elevated stretch will provide respite to thousands of commuters who travel to Delhi, Ghaziabad and Greater Noida,” he said adding that along with the new bridge across the Shahdara drain on Master Plan road-II opened on Thursday, it will definitely be a smooth ride for commuters. The first phase of the elevated road is about 2.50 kms of the total 4.80 kms between Shopprix Mall in sector 61 to NTPC cross roads near sector 24 of Noida. Part of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s project, the foundation for the project was laid in April last year and project was commissioned in October 2014. Once complete, the 16.63-metre-wide (with two 7.5-metre-wide lanes on both sides) elevated road with exits and entry provisions at Nithari, sector 30 and NTPC, sector 24 will ensure seamless flow of traffic at busy stretches along its route as about seven points on this stretch will become signal-free. About one lakh vehicles pass through the Sector 62 area. Commuters use the stretch to reach Ghaziabad via NH-24 and East Delhi. Several hundred vehicles also drive towards Greater Noida West area from Film City via the City Centre and Uflex route. Agarwal also opened a second big-ticket project for the public on Friday, the Rs 112 crore underpass located at the busy NH-24 in the sector 62 area. “This project too is fit for traffic,” he said. “This facility is expected to decongest and streamline traffic movement for thousands of commuters going between Noida, Delhi and Ghaziabad,” he explained. To augment smooth traffic movement in the area, the authority has also constructed four clover leaves — two on either side of the national highway — to avoid jams on NH-24. Vehicles coming from Delhi will enter Noida through a loop road without increasing the burden on the highway. Also, after the construction of the underpass, vehicles going towards Indirapuram and Vasundhara will not have to use the highway. The cloverleaf loops on all sides leading to and from the NH-24 will provide access. “I have asked my officials to keep the loop from Ghaziabad towards Noida closed for another 2-3 days till completed. Sign boards and lighting will be enhanced and to counter dust, water will be sprinkled,” Agarwal said. Work on the underpass, which cuts NH-24 perpendicularly near Model Town crossing, had started in March 2014. However, it was stalled for about six months in 2015. Work was finally restarted in November last year. When construction started in March 2014, the facility was to be completed in 18 months. Officials said the project faced several hindrances before it could achieve the required pace needed to meet the deadline. Chipper Jones Womens Jersey
Infrastructure woes laid bare as roads become gridlocked
Tourists from across Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka once again thronged The Nilgiris on Saturday and Sunday during the Deepavali weekend, once again leading to infrastructure problems associated with the steep increase in traffic into the district. Due to the lack of parking spaces, most vehicles visiting the Doddabetta Peak and the Ooty Boat House were forced to stop by the sides of the road, leading to traffic snarls and gridlocking in many places. The problems were most pronounced on the road from Khandal to the Ooty Boat House, where traffic came to a grinding halt from around 11.30 a.m. till late afternoon. Furthermore, there were only a few policemen on the route regulating traffic, further exacerbating the problem. V. Prabhakar, Udhagamandalam Municipality Health Officer (Commissioner in-charge) and Special Officer, acknowledged that the infrastructure problems exist, but said that the Tourism Development Board held charge over the boat house and the district police were tasked with traffic regulation. “The District Police, Municipality and Revenue Department understand that traffic problems exist and plan to conduct drives to prevent traffic violations in the future,” Mr. Prabhakar said. The Nilgiris Superintendent of Police, Murali Rambha, said that during peak seasons, the police stop private buses on the city outskirts, and run TNSTC buses that ferry the tourists to popular locations. Aaron Rodgers Jersey
Gadkari urges private ports to cater to cruise tourism
Union shipping minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday urged private port operators to create necessary arrangements for catering to passengers, pointing out to the prospects of cruise tourism in the country. “We have taken a decision to have passenger terminals at all major ports to cater to cruise tourists. There are over 200 private and minor ports in the country and I would also request them to have such facilities,” Gadkari said at the Mumbai Port Trust. He said the government is very keen to push cruise tourism, given its benefit to the local economy and wants the city port to become among the five best cruise tourism hubs in the world. The government is investing over ?200 crore to build a modern international cruise terminal at one of the oldest ports in the country, the minister informed. A bulk of the ports built in the last 25 years since the country embarked on the liberalisation journey have been privately owned or operated. All of them typically cater to the high-volume and revenue accretive trade segment, handling container, bulk and liquid cargos. A slew of names, including Adanis, Essar, Larsen and Toubro, etc have entered the port segment in the last few years. Referring to the port redevelopment plan, Gadkari said there is a plan to make the city port better than those in Dubai and Singapore as well. The minister was quick to point out that while carrying out such projects, jobs will be protected and there will in fact be a growth in employment through such initiatives. Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) chairman Sanjay Bhatia said catering to domestic tourists can also be a lucrative business opportunity and the ministry has appointed an international consultant to study the same both on the coastal and inland waterways front. The MbPT, which has a dedicated berth for cruise tourism, hosted its largest passenger ship yet on Saturday. Genting Dream anchored at the berth in her maiden voyage and will be carrying 1,900 passengers from the city till Singapore, via Colombo. A senior official from the shipping company said it has been serving the market for the last decade and saw a 36 per cent growth in Indian tourists in the last fiscal 2015-16 to over 1.25 lakh. Jessie Bates III Authentic Jersey
GSTN to borrow ₹800 cr to meet infra building cost
GSTN, the company that is building the world’s biggest and most complex tax system, will borrow ?800 crore from banks to fund infrastructure costs to support Goods and Services Tax rollout from April 1 next year. The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), a not-for-profit, non-government, private limited company promoted by the Central and State governments, is borrowing ?250 crore for working capital needs and another ?550 crore as long-term loan from domestic lenders, its chairman Navin Kumar told PTI here. The Centre has 24.5 per cent stake in GSTN and the state governments an equal share. The remaining 51 per cent is with private financial institutions. “The total authorised and paid-up capital is ?10 crore. So, ?4.90 crore has come from Central and State governments and ?5.10 crore from private institutions,” he said. Kumar said the cost of infrastructure to support the GST will be ?1,380 crore. “We will be borrowing ?550 crore for infrastructure. We have also sought some working capital limit, that we will see if there is any default in payment,” he said. Since its incorporation on March 28, 2013, the GSTN had used ?64 crore towards payments to its vendors and employees out of the central government’s sanctioned grant of ?315 crore for the first three years. “The government has released ?120 crore from the grant, and we have used ?64 crore, rest of the money we have to refund to the government,” he said, adding this year the entire expenses would be met through borrowing. Kumar said after receiving Letter of Guarantee from the government, the GSTN will raise a five-year term loan of ?550 crore from various Indian banks. “We have also requested for a ?250-crore working capital loan. So, if there is any delay by any government in making payment, then we will borrow money. We have selected the banks,” he said. Explaining how the working capital and term loans would work, he said the working capital loan works like a credit and at the end of the year the borrower has to square up the loans. But the payment of term loan has to be made every month. GSTN is a non-government, private limited company promoted by the central and state governments with the specific mandate to build the IT infrastructure and the services required for implementing Goods and Services Tax (GST). Zay Jones Authentic Jersey
Target of 25,000km road project awards unlikely to be met in FY17
The target of awarding 25,000km of road projects in the current fiscal year is unlikely to be met going by the data of the first half, analysts say. The target, set by the ministry of road transport and highways and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), was announced in April. It was seen as ambitious goal from the very start, given that the central government is already building roads at the fastest pace ever. The Nitin Gadkari-led ministry is also taking several other measures to make it easier for companies to win and execute these projects. Last fiscal year, the government awarded 10,000km of projects. The execution record in the first half of this fiscal year makes achieving the 25,000km target appear unlikely, Jefferies India Pvt. Ltd analyst Ankit Fitkariwala wrote in a 24 October report. “Looking at current pipeline of projects, we expect that previous year awards of 10,000km would probably be repeated for full year FY17 as well. We do not expect overall FY17 awards to be anywhere close to 25,000km that the ministry was expecting at the beginning of the year,” Fitkariwala wrote. While the September quarter is typically weak for road projects in terms of execution and traffic, a stronger-than-expected monsoon this year has also likely impacted execution of road projects. According to the NHAI website, it had awarded 764km of projects from April to July. It is yet to report data for August and September. India awards road projects under three models: engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC); build, operate, and transfer (BOT); and the hybrid annuity model (HAM). NHAI, the road ministry and states together have likely awarded projects of about 6,000km in the first half of the year across the three models, according to Devam Modi, an analyst at Equirus Securities Pvt. Ltd. While he does not expect the current fiscal’s target to be met, he expects awards to be significantly higher than the 10,000km achieved last fiscal year. Projects of about 2,200km each have been awarded by NHAI and the ministry up to September this fiscal, totalling to about 4,500km, according to Jefferies. Another brokerage analyst expects the ministry and NHAI to award 12,000-15,000km in total this fiscal. He asked not to be named as he is not authorized to speak to reporters. NHAI alone has active tenders of 1,200km to be bid out over the next month, largely based on the EPC and HAM models, according to a report last week by ICICI Securities. India has the world’s second largest road network, running to about 4.8 million km, but major highways constitute a small percentage of that. Gadkari has set a long-term target of building 100km of roads a day, as against last year’s target of 30km. India currently constructs roads and highways at a rate of 21km per day. Road companies including PNC Infratech Ltd, Sadbhav Engineering Ltd, IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd and Ashoka Buildcon Ltd have been benefiting from the increased pace of awards. Victor Antipin Womens Jersey
Court order on Noida toll road brings user concerns back in focus
The Allahabad High Court’s decision to stall toll charges for the DND road between Delhi and Noida has been welcomed by users, primarily the residents’ welfare associations of Noida. But, the legal tangles of the project are not expected to end soon, as the Noida Toll Bridge Company Limited, a listed firm, is approaching the Supreme Court. The company’s stocks closed down over 19 per cent on Thursday. However, the move is expected to spook existing and potential private investors in infrastructure projects — also termed public-private partnerships (PPP) — particularly at a time when the country is looking to attract investors for toll roads of national and other state highways. Many highway operators in India are trying to get funds from foreign investors, such as Brookfield, Macquarie, Canadian Pension Fund, Cube Investments, among others. Some have already invested here. According to reports, the Allahabad High Court has said the company is profitable, as it has started paying dividends. But, this stance is likely to discourage special purpose vehicles of infrastructure companies across sectors from paying dividend to the parent company. Such a decision also highlights the importance that the toll road operators give to users and the steps they take to facilitate their movement. These roads, after all, are almost like natural monopolies. But, sadly, many years after the toll gates in Noida opened, services have not improved for the users to reduce their waiting time. This calls for operators to define ‘quality of service’ in terms of seconds, or minutes for waiting, beyond which users should be allowed to zoom through the gates for free. Such solutions have been implemented at times by toll road operators in areas where there is strong local resistance. For instance, an operator has drawn a line on the road a few metres away from the toll booths. After the waiting vehicles cross that line, they are allowed to cross the toll road gates for free. Also, there could be technology-based solutions, including tag-based tokens being sold at multiple points and probably with incentives, or even allowing use of credit or debit cards to pay the toll charges. That said, users had to cough up toll charges on the DND road, with collecting agents feigning ignorance about the implementation of the court order. Finally, which stakeholder steps in at the ground level to ensure a consistent long-term solution and quality service for users remains to be seen. Vince Williams Authentic Jersey
Despite massive returns, DND expressway cost rose from Rs 408 cr to Rs 5,000 cr
Even before the Allahabad High Court ruled to end the tolling on the DND expressway connecting Delhi and Noida on Wednesday, there was enough evidence to show the project was badly conceived from the very start, and that is what led to its dramatically escalating costs—the project that was structured as a R408 crore one when it started in the early 2000s has seen its cost escalate to R5,000 crore today. Apart from the fact that the project was not competitively bid out, it was assured a 20% return on total cost—most such assured returns are on equity, not debt. And, amazingly, if there was any shortfall in revenues, the contract allowed this to be added back to the costs on which a 20% return was to be ensured—this is why the costs are escalating—which effectively meant there was little project risk to justify this huge return. Worse, the contracting was so loose, there was no cap on costs. And, as a study for the Planning Commission pointed out in 2007, IL&FS, a project sponsor, was involved in conceptualising the project and was a member of the steering committee that decided the project would be implemented by a corporate entity promoted by itself—in other words, the project didn’t have the kind of checks and balances you would expect. The 20% return on project cost, the study calculated after looking at the interest costs paid, worked out to a 32% return on equity; and when the debt was restructured following traffic shortfalls in the initial years, this raised the return on equity to 47%. Adding back shortfalls to the capital each year and no cap in costs, in effect, meant the project would never break even, so the length of the concession would have to be raised from the original 30 years—in 2006, in the Noida Toll Bridge Company Limited’s (NTBCL) AIM listing document, the directors estimated the concession period would be over 70 years. By 2012, as a document revealed in the high court hearing showed, this had gone up to 100 years. Not surprisingly, the court has said the original award was ‘unfair’. After examining the manner in which the costs kept galloping—ideally, costs should reduce each year as debt gets paid off—the court talked of the concession lasting in perpetuity ‘due to wrongful arbitrary terms and conditions of the contract’ and recommended the parts of the contract that allowed this to happen be struck off. It then looked at the amount of toll NTBCL had collected and said this more than covered costs and reasonable returns/profits, so tolling had to be discontinued. Given there are still large public infrastructure projects across the country being given out on a nominated basis, even if to government-owned entities, it is important to ensure none of them are able to extract such high returns from an unsuspecting public. Jake Fisher Authentic Jersey
NGO moves court over BRT corridor debris
The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought the government’s response on a plea seeking direction to remove all metal structures dismantled from the BRT corridor. The plea alleged that the metal structures were blocking the footpath on the stretch. A Bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal also issued a notice to the Office of the Lieutenant-Governor on the plea seeking a direction to the authorities to grant requisite approval for construction of six half sub-merged subways along the 5.8-km stretch between Moolchand and Ambedkar Nagar in south Delhi. The Bench has asked the AAP government and the Office of the L-G to file their responses by January 16, the next date of hearing. The PIL has been filed by NGO Fights for Human Rights. “A large stretch of the footpath is blocked because of the metal structure and tiles, which were dismantled and have been stored along the road. As a result, motor vehicles are not able to move freely and there is acute blockage of road…Motorists and pedestrians continuously face imminent danger to their lives. There are no boards to caution the public and motorists to travel with care to avoid accidents,” the plea claimed The plea claimed that the dismantling work “was supposed to be completed by February-end” and road was to be re-laid. Brandon Williams Authentic Jersey
Bihar MLA strips half naked to demand construction of road, sends kurta to Gadkari, pyjama to Nitish
BJP MLA Vinay Bihari devised a unique way to protest. Vinay stripped down to half-pants and an undershirt to send out a message to the Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Since last three years Vinay has been trying to get a road constructed from West Champaran’s Manuapul via Jogapatti, to Navalpur Ratwal Chowk Path. The stretch is a 44-km-long road for which Vinay has even sent a letter to Nitin Gadkari and Nitish Kumar. But the road work did not kick-off. This time, Vinay packed his kurta along with a letter and sent it to Nitin Gadkari. In the letter, Vinay wrote how his kurta was emblematic of Bhartiya Janta Party’s pride and honour. He even told Gadkari that he will start wearing kurta only once the construction of the road has begun. Not stopping at that, Vinay sent his pyjama to CM Nitish reminding him the promise he made three years ago. Vinay says, Nitish Kumar, in front of 1.5 lakh people, promised that the road will soon become a state highway on December 26, 2013. But after winning Lok Sabha elections, the promise was not kept. Max Muncy Womens Jersey
Gung-ho on road construction targets, Nitin Gadkari led Highways ministry to ask for 57% hike in allocation
Firmly poised to achieve its ambitious targets on road construction, the ministry of road transport and highways will ask for budgetary allocation of R91,000 crore for 2017-18, up 57% from the current year’s outlay, which the ministry is set to overshoot by about R4,500 crore. Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari has set ambitious targets of awarding highway projects of 25,000 km and building 15,000-km long roads during 2016-17. Though the achievement so far remains way lower than the targets, ministry officials insist that the targets would be met. The targets for next year have not been fixed so far. Gadkari has repeatedly said highway construction won’t be hit by paucity of funds even as it is obvious that private developers and banks remain wary of the sector despite government incentives. Most projects that are currently being implemented are in the conventional engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) category, which are fully funded by the government. This makes budget allocations and borrowings by the government for road projects all the more critical. While NHAI, through which a sizeable portion of highway projects are implemented, has been allowed to borrow R59,000 crore in the current fiscal, it has so far borrowed only R12,000 crore. Apart from its share of the budget outlay for the ministry and borrowings (from LIC and EPFO and via taxable and tax-free bonds), the NHAI has other means to mobilise funds: toll revenue and a part of road cess proceeds. NHAI chairman Raghav Chandra said the authority will borrow more funds as and when required. On its part, the government is looking at unconventional ways of raising funds for road construction; it, for instance, is set to offer 75 existing toll-able projects on lease to private players, including global funds with patient capital with the aim of raising up to R60,000 crore over the next six months. The minister is also planning to set up a dedicated funding agency in the state sector for highways and ports — sectors it believes would witness investments of R10 lakh crore and R15 lakh crore respectively, in the “medium term”. Sources said the road ministry would also seek permission to allow NHAI to borrow up to R59,000 crore from the markets for the 2017-18 fiscal as well. Brandon Sutter Authentic Jersey