NHAI awards Rs 2,000 cr proj in Punjab to Ashoka Concessions
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) today said it has awarded a Rs 2,070-crore highway project in Punjab to Ashoka Concessions. The 76 km project under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase-V pertains to 4/6 laning of Kharar- Ludhiana Section of NH-95 (new NH-5) in the state of Punjab. “Development of 76 km long Kharar-Ludhiana section involves 6-laning of 54 km and 4-laning of 22 km of national highways,” NHAI said in a statement. The project starts at Kharar town, passes through Morinda bypass, Khamanno town, proposed Samrala bypass and terminates at Ludhiana. It will improve connectivity and faster movement of traffic from industrial hub of Ludhiana to Chandigarh and other parts of North India, the statement said. The project shall also provide alternate connectivity of Chandigarh to NHAI-1 as well as for the traffic from South-West Punjab to the Chandigarh city. “The project will have 2 major bridges, 6 minor bridges, 8 flyovers, 6 vehicular underpasses, 10 pedestrian underpasses, 126 culverts, 46 km long service, 9 major junctions, 253 minor junctions and 8 km long bypass at Samrala,” the statement said. Phil Dawson Authentic Jersey
Rural roads’ construction pace increases to 139km/day
The construction pace of roads built under the flagship scheme of PMGSY has increased to 139 km per day, a top official said today. “From 2011 to 2014, the roads in rural areas under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) were constructed at 70-75 kilometer per day. And in next two years 2014-16, it increased to 100 km per day. Today the roads are being constructed at 139 km per day,” Secretary, Rural Development, Amarjeet Sinha told PTI. He said while the construction speed was 139 km in the first five months, 133 km will be constructed per day under the PMGSY in 2016-17. Sinha said the Centre has adopted green technologies such as use of waste plastic, fly ash, cold mix, jute and coir geo-textiles, copper and iron slag in the making of rural roads. Earlier, the Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar had said that the government was working to increase the pace to 133 km/day and was planning to construct an additional 50000 km ruralroads. Rural roads is a state subject and PMGSY is a one-time special intervention of the government to provide rural connectivity by way of single all-weather road connectivity to eligible, unconnected habitations in the core network. The programme envisages connecting all habitations with a population of 500 people and above as per 2001 census in plain areas and 250 people and above as per 2001 census in special category states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand. The habitations having a population of 100 and above and identified by Home Ministry as crucial, are also covered under the scheme. The government has also launched the second phase of PMGSY-II which envisages consolidation of the existing rural road network to improve its overall efficiency. Graham Knott Authentic Jersey
India will have seven mega cities by 2030: UN
At present, India is home to five mega ci ties, with over 10 million population, but by 2030 this number will go up to seven. Delhi will continue to be the second most populous city in the world till 2030, adding a staggering 9.6 million people to its population –the most in any mega city . The facts have been revealed in the 2016 World Cities Report issued by the UN’s department of economic and social affairs. The report has not relied on the administrative boundaries of cities but has, instead, preferred to use the concept of “urban agglomeration” which is the “the contiguous urban area, or builtup area”. For example, in the case of Delhi urban agglomeration, the satellite cities of Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad and Gurgaon are included. Such inclusion makes sense as people in these contiguous areas are economically and socially integrated with the main city . Around the world, about 500 million people live in 31 such mega cities. That’s about 6.8% of the world’s population or 12% of the world’s urban population.The report calculates that by 2030, the number of mega cities will increase to 41 and their population to about 730 million or 8.7% of the world’s population. Other Indian cities figure in 2016’s mega cities listing in 2016’s mega cities list are Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai. By 2030, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad will join them, as their respective populations would cross 10 million. The UN report shows that only a minority of urban dwellers actually live in mega cities. Nearly 21% of the world’s population stays in cities of population between 500,000 to 10 million, while an even bigger share of 26.8% resides in smaller cities and towns with a population of less than 500,000. By 2030, the world’s population will decisively shift to urban living with 60% of the estimated population living in cities, big or small. Currently, about 54% of the world’s population is urban. Most of the urban growth is happening in developing countries in Asia and Africa. By 2030, as many as 33 of the 41 mega cities will be from the third world. Of the 47 cities that grew by over 6% every year be tween 2000 and 2016, six were in Africa, 40 in Asia (including 20 in China) and just one in North America. Interestingly , not all cities are growing. Out of the 1,063 cities with a population over 500,000, as many as 55 have shown a decline since 2000. Most of these cities are located in Europe and some in Japan.Their decline is mostly due to falling fertility levels, although some have shown a dip in population due to natural calamities like New Orleans (due to hurricane Katrina) and Sendai in Japan (tsunami). Mike Gartner Authentic Jersey
NHAI awards contract for 4/6 Laning of Kharar-Ludhiana Section of NH-95 (new NH-5) in the state of Punjab
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has issued Letter of Award (LOA) for development of following National Highway section in the state of Punjab under NHDP Phase-V: NH No. Section Length Total Capital Cost (Crore) Concessionaire’s Name 95 (new NH-5) 4/6 laning of Kharar-Ludhiana section 76 km Rs. 2,070 crore M/s Ashoka Concessions Ltd. Development of 76 km long Kharar-Ludhiana section involves 6-laning of 54 km and 4-laning of 22 km of National Highways. The project National Highway-5 starts at Kharar town, passes through Morinda bypass, Khamanno town, proposed Samrala bypass and terminates at Ludhiana. It will improve connectivity and faster movement of traffic from Industrial hub of Ludhiana to Chandigarh and other parts of North India. The project shall also provide alternate connectivity of Chandigarh to NHAI-1, as well as for the traffic from South-West Punjab to the Chandigarh city. The project will have 2 Major Bridges, 6 Minor Bridges, 8 Flyovers, 6 Vehicular Underpasses, 10 Pedestrian Underpasses, 126 Culverts, 46 km long Service Lane, 9 Major Junctions, 253 Minor Junctions and 8 km long bypass at Samrala. Roquan Smith Jersey
Road building in slow lane: Not even one project awarded by NHAI via hybrid annuity route achieves financial closure
With bankers somewhat wary of lending to the roads sector, after a clutch of projects was derailed, not a single project awarded by NHAI (National Highways Authority of India) via the hybrid annuity model route appears to have achieved financial closure. The NHAI is understood to have awarded eleven road projects till March 31, 2016 via the hybrid annuity route, a mechansim where the NHAI assumes the responsibilities of acquiring the land, estimating the traffic and collecting the toll and the concessionaire takes on virtually no risk. NHAI rules stipulate financial closure needs to be achieved within 150 days of signing the concession agreement. However, given their mixed experience with the BOT model, banks and financial institutions are evaluating the applications cautiously, sources said. The concerns of lenders stem from the small equity risk that the concessionaire is taking. Given that 40% of the project cost comes as a grant from NHAI, the concenssionaire’s equity contribution is reduced to just 15% of the remaining 60% of the project cost or effectively 9%. Lenders feel this is too small pointing out the promoter has virtually no skin in the game. A senior public sector bank executive told FE, several large banks have indicated their reluctance to lend to hybrid projects if the promoters’ equity is effectively just 9%. “This is too small a commitment on the part of the promoter and none of the proposals from developers has been closed yet,” the executive added. Indian Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL) is among the institutions evaluating the new projects under the hybrid model. “While the requirment for equity from the concessionaire has been diluted, we are satisfied if the funds from either NHAI or the developer are released in keeping with the physical progress of the project. The ministry has agreed to this so we should be able to close out a couple of projects soon,” Sanjeev Kaushik, deputy managing director, (IIFCL) said. “The money is needed in the early stages of construction, ” Kaushik explained. Banks also believe the compensation or termination charges, in the event of the concessionaire’s inability to complete a project, should be 90% of the debt due, as it is in the case of a BOT project. Currently, the rules for hydrid annuity projects stipulate a far lower level of compensation to the lenders which is worrying them. Lenders are also concerned that the interest payable by NHAI, on loans taken by the developers, is too low. The rules stipulate the interest be fixed based on the bank rate plus a spread of 3%. Both IIFCL and bankers have suggested to MORTH, the interest be benchmarked to the the base rate of State Bank of India (SBI) or the average base rate of five banks plus a 3% spread. The ministry, is however, unlikely to agree to this demand. Among the developers who are willing to construct roads via the hybrid route is MEP Infrastructure which successfully bid for three projects. The firm is a first-time developer of roads and Jayant Mhaiskar, VC & MD, MEP Infrastructure, said the company is on track to achieve financial closure for two projects by October. However, Mhaiskar added some lenders were requesting changes to the terms and conditions. “This is taking time and delaying closure,” he said. The hybrid annuity model was introduced by Nitin Gadkari, minister for road transport, highways and shipping, in early 2015 to revive private sector investment in the roads sector by re-allocating risks. Under this model, the governemnt collects the toll and pays the developer a biannual annuity for recovering investment and interest costs and fee for operations and maintenance. In the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, the developer absorbs most of the risks—financial, operations and maintenance and revenue.The ministry of road transport and highways (MORTH) failed to get any bids for at least 21 projects worth Rs 27,000 crore between fiscal years 2013 and 2014. Lenders were expected to be comfortable with the hybrid model since the toll revenue streams, to service the debt, would be inbuilt into the framework. However, lenders remain wary of developers defaulting on the construction of the roads and want more collateral. Since the onus of collecting the toll — a politically sensitive task — is no longer on the developers and they are also not required to estimate the traffic, hybrid projects were expected to take off quickly. Over the last few years the government has come to the aid of developers by reschedulding the premium payable by them to NHAI so as to ease their cash flows. Moreover, it has also permitted them an early exit through the substitution route to free up capital. Further, it has de-linked environment and forest clearances, making it easier for them to start construction. Tress Way Jersey
10 State highways to be upgraded
An appeal by Minister for Higher Education Basavaraj Rayaraddi to Union Minister for Road Transport and Shipping Nitin Gadkari elicited an instant response from the latter who announced that 10 State highways would be upgraded as national highways, here on Saturday. Speaking at a function here, Mr. Rayaraddi said that the proposed roads of historical importance were in the backward Hyderabad-Karnataka region. They are Adoni to Yelburga-Sudi (200 km), Koppal to Nippani (300 km), Ranebennur to NH 50 (250 km), Lingsugur to Maharashtra border (240 km), Degalur to Mahaboobnagar (250 km), Sindagi to Hyderabad (300 km), Chincholi to Shahpur (170 km), Ilakal to Sirsi (250 km), Torangal to Haveri (250 km), and Afzalpur to Lokapur (170 km). Lerentee McCray Womens Jersey
Stress on aesthetic coastal highway design: NHAI
A coastal highway, around 451-km-long, is proposed to be constructed along the Odisha coastline with an emphasis on designing it in a manner which is “aesthetic and environmentally compatible”, officials said on Sunday. A high-level meeting of the National Highway Authorities of India (NHAI), Odisha region, held under the chairmanship of Development Commissioner and Chief Secretary (in-charge) R Balakrishnan, considered the proposed alignment of the highway on Saturday. Balakrishnan directed the officials concerned to make the road design “aesthetically” and in a way which is “environmentally compatible”, in consultation with the Forest and Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) authorities. He also sought steps to plan the alignment in a manner which boosts tourism and port-based industrial activities in the state. The NHAI was also advised to share the plan with the respective departments and collectors for their considered inputs, an official statement said. Dharmanada Sarangi, Chief General Manager (CGM), NHAI, who made a PowerPoint presentation on the proposal, said the proposed highway currently proceeds through Chhatraput-Satapada-Konark-Astaranga-Nuagaon-Paradeep–Ratanpur -Satabhaya-Dhamara-Basudevpur-Talapada-Chandipur-Chandaneswar– Digha. Of the total length of 451 km, around 29 km come under Ganjam district, 153 km under Puri district, 54 km under Jagatsinghpur, 49 km under Kendrapara, 61 km under Bhadrak, 99 km under Balasore district and six km connecting East Midnapore district in West Bengal, he said, adding that over 178 villages would be connected by the highway. It would also have bridges over several rivers including the Rushikulya, Kushabhadra, Mahanadi, Brahmani, Baitarani and Subarnarekha, besides Chilika lake, the statement said. The road, which would boost tourism and industrial activities in the region, would also serve as a highway linkage to all the ports in the state. Available data shows that so far, two expert consultants have been engaged for carrying out the preliminary survey and preparing the Detailed Project Report (DPR). While the preliminary survey has been done and the preliminary alignment of the road suggested, the DPR is expected to be prepared by February, 2017, the statement said. Seattle Seahawks Jersey
Roads ministry lags in awards, construction of highways in ongoing fiscal
The highways ministry is lagging behind its ambitious target of both award and construction of national highways. While the achievement in award of projects in this financial year is only 36% against the monthly target that the ministry had set for itself, the accomplishment in construction is only 60% against the monthly targets till August 26. TOI has learnt that 2,823 km of highway stretches were awarded for widening against the target of 7,875 km in this financial year. Similarly, construction on 2,625 km has been completed against the target of 4,400 km. In April, the highways ministry had set an ambitious target of constructing 15,000 km and awarding 25,000 km during this financial year. This seems to be tough to meet despite the ministry doing better than what previous governments were able to achieve. During the last financial year, a maximum of 6,000 km was constructed, the highest ever. Similarly, 10,000 km of highway stretches were awarded for expansion during 2015-16, which was the second highest since the government took up highway expansion in a big way. The record construction and widening of highways had marked a year-over-year increase of nearly 36%. Admitting that the target for this year is hard to achieve, ministry officials said they expect the pace of rolling out of projects to accelerate in the next few months. “Meeting are taking place regularly and monitoring is being done to push the award of works and also to expedite construction. Both have to go hand-in-hand. Systemic issues that often hold up projects have been addressed to a large extent,” a source said. Officials claimed that the pace of construction will also gain pace after monsoon. They said the speed of construction slows down during rainy season and picks up subsequently. Winter and summer are the most favourable periods of road construction and widening works. Realizing that the pace of construction needs to be pushed to maintain his record, highways minister Nitin Gadkari has asked NHAI and his ministry to adopt new technology, including the use of precast slabs. Earlier,he had told TOI that he had kept a higher target intentionally so that maximum work could be undertaken and completed. Danny Etling Jersey
Delhi Lost Over INR 9 Cr Because Of Waterlogged Roads And Crawling Traffic In The Past Two Days
Rain is a much romanticised idea in poems and films – a poet writes about his/her longing for thunderous showers and directors shoot scenes of lovers embracing under pouring water. Unfortunately the reality of monsoons, at least in India, brings out rather unromantic emotions in most people, and especially so in those living in urban cities. This year, India has received generous amounts of rain. And this year, like all others, the monsoon was covered extensively by the media and spoken about in copious amounts on social media. And finally, this year, like previous years again, urban Indian cities broke down leading to endless hours of bumper-to-bumper traffic. John Kerry, who was in the country recently, had to cancel three trips to religious sites in Delhi because of rain-delaying-traffic. Chairman of Centre for Public Policy Research, D.Dhanuraj said, “Traffic jams deteriorate quality of life, lead to loss of fuel, lend to pollution, and create environmental and health problems.” Daily commuters face stress on a daily basis because of poor road conditions in urban cities which include Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai. The root of all problems On the last day of August, Delhi-NCR woke up to pouring rain. All was good when you were standing in your balcony with a cup of tea in hand and soaking in the wondrous sight of water – until the woes of traffic began creeping in. On Wednesday, August 31, Delhi’s Dhaula Kuan area and the Ring Road were absolutely packed, and it took people at least three hours to find their way home or to work. It was while sitting in traffic, left foot on the clutch and right on the brake that I began wondering about how much was at stake with every minute wasted in traffic. Here’s the Math Let’s begin with money, because money, after all, is what causes all seven sins to surface. Maruti Suzuki’s ubiquitous Wagon R is one of the most economical cars and gives 20kmpl in mileage. We’re using this car to assume that you’re travelling 40km every day in Delhi’s crawling traffic. In this case, you’re spending an extra 0.4 litres of fuel and an extra Rs. 25.4 than on a normal traffic day. According to Delhi Traffic Police, there are 96,34,976 cars in Delhi. Assuming that nearly 40% of these cars run on petrol, means that the capital is losing Rs. 9.78 crores everyday because of bumper-to-bumper traffic. There are also diesel and CNG cars which make up the other three quarters of vehicles in Delhi, and they also add to monetary losses incurred in Delhi. Even companies lose money for every employee stuck in traffic for hours on hours. If you’re earning INR 20,000/month, which translates to Rs.645 a day and to Rs.27 an hour, then the company is losing Rs.27 for every hour you are stuck in traffic. It was reported by TOI that India loses INR 60,000 crores a year due to traffic congestion – that’s a whopping amount of money lost purely by spending futile time moving a centimeter a minute. Dhanuraj also told Indiatimes, “Metropolitan cities are very dense and no new cities are coming up. There are only a few cities to migrate to and they are no longer empowered to absorb more people.” Is there a solution? The Centre for Science and Environment talked about the health implications of congestion and said “a large number of studies are now available that show exposure to vehicle exhaust causes significant increase in respiratory symptoms and lung function impairment, cancer and other ailments. “And congestion further aggravates emissions. Low average speed due to traffic congestion increases the emissions due to the stop-and-go pattern of traffic flow in congested condition.” Paramita Dey, Senior Research Officer and Team Leader at the National Institute of Urban Affairs, told us, “One of the major causes of traffic jams in our cities during monsoon is because of problems associated with the drainage cities. Many of our cities don’t have proper drainage systems, and those that do are either choked with solid waste or not cleaned at all.” She also said that constantly shifting gears and driving at a low speed wastes fuel but “air pollution is less during the monsoon as rain settles particles” but water pollution is increased. These problems, Dey added, can be solved if the management in charge cleans the drains before the onset of the monsoon season. The solution to solving India’s yearly problem that comes hand in hand with the monsoon is not only to fix pot-holed roads but also the drainage system. Dhanuraj said that currently there are multiple authorities managing Indian roads that are “breathing corruption”, hence the roads remain unfixed and the drains clogged.
Government approves Rs 7,457 crore highway projects in 11 states
Government approved 16 highway projects in 11 states to be executed at a cost of Rs 7,457 crore. “The standing finance committee (SFC) today cleared 16 projects worth Rs 7,456.88 crore for 622 km,” Road Transport and Highways Secretary Sanjay Mitra told reporters. Of these, two projects will be built on hybrid annuity mode, 13 on engineering, procurement and construction mode and remaining one on build, operate and transfer (BOT) mode. The projects are in Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Sikkim. Mitra said two of the projects pertained to Char Dham Yatra connectivity in Uttarakhand on EPC mode. These include Rs 248 crore and Rs 200 crore projects for geometric improvement and widening of stretches on NH 58. The two projects to be built on hybrid annuity mode (HBA) include Rs 905 crore and Rs 1,338 crore projects in Maharashtra for upgradation of NH 66 stretches under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) phase IV. The BOT project pertained to four laning of Haryana/Punjab border Jind section of NH 71 design, build, finance, operate and transfer mode. The projects sanctioned today include five projects under SARDP-NE for Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Sikkim. Joe Thuney Womens Jersey