NHAI awards Rs 2,640-crore road projects in Gujarat
To connect important religious and tourist places between Bhavnagar and Somnath in Gujarat , four road projects worth Rs 2,640 crore have been awarded, National Highways Authority of India ( NHAI ) said today. “Two hundred and fifty six km long Bhavnagar to Somnath section of NH-8E (New NH-51) is an important link to connect religious and tourist places of Talaja, Mahuva, Palitana, Island of Diu, Somnath Temple, Gir National Park, Porbandar and Dwarka…. NHAI has awarded contract for 4-laning of four packages of the section of a total length of 175 km,” NHAI said in a statement. Among the companies that bagged the contracts are Sadbhav Infrastructure, MEP Infrastructure Developers and Sanjose India Infrastructure & Construction (in JV), and Agroh Infrastructure & Developers. “The total cost of these four packages is Rs 2,640 crore (civil construction cost) and project road would be a cement concrete highway,” NHAI said. The project will also provide improved connectivity to ports of Alang (the biggest ship breaking facility and recycling yard of India), Pipavav, Jafarabad, Gogha and Veraval (fishery collection and trading centre), it said. Tim Brown Womens Jersey
1,780 km rail lines commissioned, 6,000 km highways built in 2015-16
The government has commissioned 1,780 km of rail lines and also completed over 6,000 km of highways in 2015-16 period, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement on Monday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was reviewing the progress in the key infrastructure sectors of railways and roadways on Monday. The PMO said that 1,730 km of rail links have also been electrified in 2015-16. In the course of the review of the railway sector, it was noted that it had received a capital investment of over Rs 93,000 crore in the last fiscal. “This represents a massive increase of 65 percent over the previous year, and is the highest-ever investment in railways in one year. The figures also represent the best performance on these metrics in railway history,” the statement said. It added that the prime minister has stressed the need to speed up the redevelopment of railway stations and has urged the ministry to upgrade and diversify the uses of its infrastructure. In the meeting, Prime Minister Modi was informed that over 6,000 km of highways have been completed in 2015-16, while contracts for 10,098 km were awarded in the same period. Modi has also stressed the need to decongest the critical highways by adopting latest technologies for toll collection. He has asked the officials from the union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to study various models of road development across the country and adopt the best practices so that more private investment can be brought into the highway construction sector. Jack Tatum Authentic Jersey
Gujarat to get Rs 2 lakh crore for infra development: Nitin Gadkari
Centre will allocate Rs 2 lakh crore to Gujarat for the development of roads and ports during the next three years, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said today. He made the announcement at the foundation stone laying ceremony for the construction of the 256-Km long four-lane national highway connecting pilgrimage town of Somnath with Bhavnagar, at Somnath town in Gir-Somnath district. Notably, Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is going to polls next year. The project has been undertaken by the National Highway Authority of India ( NHAI ) and expected to complete in two years at the cost of Rs 4,876 crore. Allocation of Rs 2,00,000 crore will be made for the development of roads and ports for the next three years in Gujarat, an official release quoted the Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping as saying. Ben Ijalana Womens Jersey
Smart cities mission: Rajasthan sprints ahead, set to start work in Udaipur
Within months of his election in May 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a bold commitment to build 100 smart cities throughout India. Cut to present. The smart cities movement is gathering pace. Last week, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Panaji and Raipur are among the 13 urban areas that were selected to be developed as smart cities. The new additions are to the list of 20 cities that were selected in January; 40 more will be added to the list by the year-end. Each city will be given R500 crore by the Centre over five years. The states will have to make a matching contribution. “The new additions to the list of 20 smart cities are from the 23 fast track cities which had been asked to submit their updated plans by mid April. With these additions, it is expected that the distribution of smart cities across individual states will become more balanced,” says Arindam Guha, senior director, Deloitte in India. Meant to change the way urban India lives, smart cities will enjoy uninterrupted power and water supply, internet connectivity, e-governance along with quality infrastructure, says Jagan Shah, director, National Institute of Urban Affairs. “The mission for smart cities is very clear in its objective that the identity of the city in terms of heritage and economic activities will be retained while strengthening the core infrastructure and improving the quality of life.” Without doubt, cities’ ambitions to become “smarter” range from the use of information and digital infrastructure to manage the energy and water use in buildings to the creation of intelligent transport networks to minimise congestion. “However what is more important is what kind of models individual cities will adopt for procurement and implementation,” says Guha of Deloitte. “We are already seeing widely varying models with some cities going for two packages, one for the PAN city solution and the other for area development. Certain other cities are in the process of appointing a single project management unit which would then support them in procurement of specialised solution providers in areas like solid waste management, water supply, sanitation etc.” Rajasthan shows the way forward Meanwhile, Rajasthan is moving ahead at a rapid pace in terms of development of smart cities. In January this year, the Modi government announced a list of the first 20 cities to be developed as smart cities, and Jaipur and Udaipur made it to that list. Rajasthan was the first state to submit smart city plans in January this year. The state has proposed a total investment of R6,457 crore over the next five years for developing Ajmer, Jaipur, Kota and Udaipur as smart cities, as part of the Smart City Challenge. Rajasthan has also taken the lead in setting up special purpose vehicles (SPV) for the implementation of smart city plans. The state has set up an 11-member SPV for Jaipur and a 13-member body for Udaipur. These vehicles will approve, sanction and execute the projects besides mobilising resources from various sources to ensure timely and efficient execution of plans. Industry forum Ficci and Udaipur Municipal Corporation (UMC) have signed a memorandum of understanding for developing Udaipur as a smart city. The two came together to collaborate in areas of creation of financial plans for various sectors and creation of innovative sources of the municipal finance, project based support for projects in areas like transport, solid waste management, water supply, housing, sewerage, health, education, storm water drainage etc. Rajpal Singh Shekhawat, urban development and local self government minister in Rajasthan government, told FE: “A smart city is about inclusive growth, quality of life, happiness index, convenience of living and being green. Some cities may have been ‘smart’ earlier but to be counted as ‘smart’ in 2016 was different in the context of having planned core infrastructure as well as a clean and sustainable environment.” Shekhawat said that each city has its own strength in terms of heritage, geographical location and environment. The Smart City Mission will keep these factors in mind while developing smart cities in Rajasthan. “There cannot be a universal formula for developing a smart city—however making governance citizen friendly and cost effective will be one of the key objectives. It will also expand housing opportunities for all.” Manjit Singh, principal secretary, local self government, said Rajasthan government is fully geared up for the smart city projects. Special purpose vehicles (SPVs) have already been created. The project management consultants (PMC) will be appointed by the end of this month and the work will begin by June 15 next month. Jordan Willis Womens Jersey
Britain offers to develop Pune, Indore, Amravati as smart cities
Britain will be collaborating with the state governments and the municipal authorities to develop Pune (Maharashtra), Indore (MP) and Amravati (Andhra Pradesh) into smart cities, British High Commissioner to India Dominic Anthony Gerard Asquith said here today. The High Commissioner, who met Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao at Raj Bhavan here, said a centre of excellence on automobile skills will be set up in Pune. Maharashtra would welcome cooperation from Britain in areas such as cleaning of rivers and water bodies, sewage treatment and management of solid waste, a Raj Bhavan spokesperson said quoting Rao. Deputy High Commissioner of Britain in Mumbai Kumar Iyer was also present at the meeting. San Francisco 49ers Womens Jersey
Trying to take railways out of ICU: Suresh Prabhu
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today said efforts are on to take the public transporter ‘out of the ICU’ and create a situation where it can breathe well. “The railways was in deep trouble not now but in the last 20-30 years. That is what the Rakesh Mohan committee report had said. So now we are trying to create a situation where the railways will be able to breathe well,” he told PTI. Asked whether the national transporter is still in the ICU, he said, “We are trying to take it out of the ICU.” On measures to make it robust, Prabhu said, “In order to survive, the railways needs to revamp its operation. We are working on it. We are making it sure that the railways will be an engine of growth in the next few years. We are putting all our efforts into it.” To a question about the railways’ strategy since loadings are falling, the minister said a capacity to handle 1.2 billion tons of cargo will be created in the coming years. “Freight (traffic) falling is not in our hands, it depends on the growth of the core sector. When core sector grows freight will also grow. But we are ready to handle 1.2 billion tons of cargo. In the railways’ history for the first time, we have created such a handling capacity ahead of its demand. So now cargo has to come,” he said. Asked whether the railways is considering hiking passenger fare since the freight is not picking up and passengers growth rate is also not high, Prabhu said the regulatory authority will decide on it. “We are setting up a regulatory framework for fare decision. The regulator will decide what should be the fare,” he said. On certain trains being introduced recently with increased fare, he hinted at a possible separate fare structure for the new services. “We are starting four new products — Humsafar, Tejas, Antodaya and Uday. All these products will look at how to increase market share of the railways,” the minister said. While the fare of recently launched Gatimaan Express is 25 per cent higher than Shatabdi, Mahamana Express was started with 15 per cent more than the regular train fare. According to Rail Budget proposals, Humsafar would be fully air-conditioned third AC service with an optional service for meals. Tejas, on the other hand, will showcase the future of train travel in India with operating speeds of 130 kmph and have on-board services such as entertainment, local cuisine, Wi-Fi. The railways also propose introduction of overnight Utkrisht Double-decker Air-conditioned Yatri (UDAY) Express on the busiest routes, which has the potential to increase carrying capacity by almost 40 per cent. There is also a proposal for the introduction of Antyodaya Express, a long-distance, fully unreserved, super-fast train service, for the common man to be operated on dense routes. The railways which has a huge amount of data as it operates around 11,000 trains and carries about more than 2 crore passengers per day, is planning to moneytize its data. “It is the first time in the world we are doing it… moneytising of the data. We are taking help of experts to do it,” Prabhu said. Asked whether sharing data will be construed as compromising the privacy of railway customers, he said, “This is called operations data, not passenger data. There will be no compromise on privacy in any way.” On if IRCTC data concerning passengers details will be moneytised, he said, “It will be operations data and not passenger data. Nobody is interested in IRCTC data. We will moneytise operations data. You will come to know when we will do it. This is nothing to do with IRCTC data.” To a question about raising funds with the World Bank, Prabhu said, “That is also in an advanced stage, a separate fund of the World Bank for the railways. The World Bank is creating a separate fund with Indian Railways and details are being worked out.” Asked about the progress regarding two locomotives plants in Bihar involving FDI, he said, “We reviewed the progress of Madhepura and Marhora projects and they are on track.” He, however, noted, “It is not only FDI but investment in the railways will come. We will keep doing that. Station development contract is already in process. We have already given the contract to one and 10 more will be given soon. We are also doing it on government-to-government basis.” About reforms, he said, “All of our reforms will be bearing fruits in the next two-three years time. Some are already happening, some are in the process.” To a question comparing the railways with the road sector in terms of laying tracks, he said, “There is no comparision between road sector or that sector with this sector. “We are on the right track. The railways will be on the path of progress in the years to come,” Prabhu added. Sebastian Janikowski Womens Jersey
Rs.5,534 cr investment in basic urban infra under Atal Mission approved in 6 States for 2016-17
Ministry of Urban Development will convene annual meetings of all States and Union Territories to discuss and review at the highest level progress of urban renaissance set in motion. A decision taken in this regard by the Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu was today conveyed to the six States that attended the meeting of the Apex Committee convened for approving annual action plans of States under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT). Shri Rajiv Gauba, Secretary (UD), who is also the Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Apex Committee informed the participating States that Ministers of Urban Development and Housing of all States/UTs, Mayors and Municipal Chairpersons, Secretaries of Urban Development of States/UTs, Mission Directors and Municipal Commissioners of all 500 AMRUT cities will be attending the two day conference for taking stock of progress of urban sector reforms, implementation of new schemes etc., initiated during the last two years as a part of urban renaissance. The first such conference will be held in the next two months. Shri Gauba said that henceforth, the Ministry will approve States’ Annual Action Plans for the entire mission period based on which annual plans could be prepared and considered for approval before the commencement of a financial year to ensure timely execution. The six participating States informed the Committee that action is in progress for obtaining Credit Ratings for over 100 mission cities and the process would be completed before the end of this year. The Apex Committee chaired by Shri Rajiv Gauba approved a total investment of Rs.5,534 cr for providing household water taps, improving water supply, sewerage networks/septage management, storm water drains, urban transport and provision of open and green spaces in 111 Atal Mission cities in the States of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand and Meghalaya. A total Central Assistance of Rs.2,453 cr will be given to these States. Under first approvals under AMRUT during the current financial year, Rs.2,126 cr will be spent on providing water supply connections to unconnected households and augmenting water supply, Rs.2,848 cr on expanding sewerage networks, Rs.140 cr on storm water drains, Rs.190 cr on urban transport and Rs.101 cr for improving open and green spaces in 111 mission cities in the six States. For 2016-17, approved investment in 34 mission cities of Madha Pradesh has been Rs.2,074 cr with Central assistance of Rs.862.80 cr, for 31 cities of Gujarat-Rs.1,401 cr with Central assistance of Rs.599.18 cr, for 29 cities of Rajasthan-Rs.1,120 cr with Central assistance of Rs.536 cr, for 9 cities of Odisha-Rs.531 cr with Central assistance of 265 cr, for 7 cities of Jharkhand-Rs.381 cr with Central assistance of Rs.164 cr and for the lone Mission city of Shillong in Meghalaya-Rs.26.67 cr with Central assistance of Rs.24 cr. These six States proposed a total investment of Rs.43,569 cr by 2019-20 under AMRUT. The proposals include : Gujarat- Rs.15,375 cr, Odisha-Rs.10,226 cr, MP-Rs.8,279 cr, Rajasthan-Rs.5,498 cr, Jharkhand-Rs.3,919 cr and Meghalaya-Rs.172 cr. With today’s approvals, the total investment approved for improvement of basic urban infrastructure under Atal Mission has gone up to Rs.26,416 cr with a total Central assistance of Rs.12,347 cr. The Apex Committee also approved release of Central assistance of Rs.520 cr for the JNNURM schemes under implementation. The Committee also approved release of Central assistance of Rs.20.19 cr to Meghalaya as second installment for procurement of 240 buses and Rs.4.00 cr to Maharashtra for Bus depot at Ghansoli and development of Intelligent Traffic Management System. Dion Phaneuf Jersey
Government approves over Rs 5,530 crore for infra boost in 111 cities
The Centre has approved an investment of over Rs 5,530 crore for providing basic infrastructure in over 110 cities across six states under AMRUT scheme for the current fiscal. The cental assistance to these states – Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand and Meghalaya – will be to the tune of Rs 2,453 crore. The funds will used for providing household water taps, improving water supply , sewerage networks/septage management, storm water drains, urban transport and provision of open and green spaces in these cities. “The Apex Committee, chaired by Urban Development Secretary Rajiv Gauba, approved a total investment of Rs 5,534 crore for 111 Atal Mission cities in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand and Meghalaya,” an official release said. A total central assistance of Rs 2,453 crore will be given to these states, it added. For 2016-17, approved investment in 34 mission cities of Madhya Pradesh has been Rs 2,074 crore with central assistance of Rs 862.80 crore, while Rs 1,401 crore investment is approved for 31 cities of Gujarat with central assistance of Rs 599.18 crore. For 29 cities of Rajasthan, investment of Rs 1,120 crore is approved with central assistance of Rs 536 crore; for 9 cities of Odisha Rs 531 crore with central assistance of 265 crore; for 7 cities of Jharkhand – Rs.381 crore with central assistance of Rs 164 crore and for the lone Mission city of Shillong in Meghalaya Rs 26.67 crore with central assistance of Rs 24 crore, the release said. Urban Development Ministry will also convene annual meetings of all states and UTs to review the progress of implementation of various schemes and the first such conference will be held in the next two months. The decision was conveyed to these six states which attended the meeting of the Apex Committee convened for approving annual action plans of States under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), the release said. Various stakeholders, including Ministers of Urban Development and Housing of all states/UTs, Mission Directors and Municipal Commissioners of all 500 AMRUT cities will be attending the two-day conference, it added. The six participating states informed the Committee that action is in progress for obtaining credit ratings for over 100 Mission cities and the process would be completed before the end of this year. These six states also proposed a total investment of Rs 43,569 crore by 2019-20 under AMRUT, the release said. Robert Covington Authentic Jersey
Infra companies keen on investment trusts, but want more clarity
Infrastructures developers such as IRB, GMR and IL&FS are keen to launch their infrastructure investment trusts after Sebi announced guidelines last week, but may hold their plans for more clarity on disclosure and accounting norms. An infrastructure investment trust (InvITs) offers an opportunity to promoters of projects to sell their stake in completed projects to the trust, which in turn can raise longterm and tax-free funds from unit holders.Markets regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) issued the norms for public issue of units of these InvITs which are likely to pump in liquidity into an otherwise cash-strapped infrastructure sector. “We are keen to tap this route for fundraising but until we have more clarity on accounting standards, disclosure and prospectus norms, we cannot go ahead with it. We expect Sebi to come out with guidelines on that soon so that this fund raising option can be exercised,” said IRB Infrastructure BSE 1.54 % Developers’ promoter and Chairman Virendra Mhaiskar. IRB and GMR Infrastructure BSE 0.97 % have already received the regulator’s approval for the trust while others such as Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services have sought the regulators nod. L&T is also considering this route for fundraising. “We will look at it if we have the comfort that it will get long term investors since it is a product modelled for institutional and long term investors. Investors looking for short term gain may get frustrated if they invest in it,” L&T Chief Financial Officer R Shankar Raman said. The guidelines announced by Sebi last week give these developers more flexibility by allowing sponsors to reduce their holding in the trust to 10% from 25% mandated earlier. It also allows them to invest in two-level special purpose vehicle structure and increase the number of sponsors to 5 from 3. But companies may have to tweak their plans and may be able to raise less than what they had planned initially after Sebi detailed the eligibility criteria for projects that can be included. Most infrastructure developers are struggling with low cash flows and have heavily leveraged balance sheets, which constraints their ability to bid for new projects. Several projects, and even holding companies, are on the block but there have been far too few deals. “Very few deals are going through in the secondary Market even though a lot of projects are looking for equity investments as there’s a valuation mismatch. We will have to see what kind of valuation these trusts can fetch as it is a new route and there could be some teething issues,” said Shubham Jain, vice president at the rating agency ICRA. Infrastructure developers are refraining from bidding for new projects given their financial constraints with a number of bids for Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) road project falling to 3-5 from about 20 during 2011-12. Martinas Rankin Jersey
Road transport ministry releases concept paper to take off old vehicle from the roads
The road transport and highways ministry has released the concept paper for its proposed voluntary vehicle fleet modernisation policy that aims to take off the old polluting vehicles (vehicles older than 11 years) off road. The policy aims at incentivising people to retire their old vehicles that were bought before March 2005 or are below BS IV standards. As per the government estimates, the scheme may take 28 million such units off the road and reduce emission. The concept note proposes cut in excise tax up to 50 per cent at the time of purchase of new car after scrapping old car, fair value for the scrap and discounts by automobile manufacturers. All these incentives is likely to reduce the cost of a new vehicle for a buyer by 12 per cent. It suggests complete excise exemption for state transport buses to encourage public transport and help decongest roads. “The decision of excise exemption is to be taken by finance ministry. We’ll try convincing them,” a senior government official said. “Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernisation (V-VMP) has the potential to reduce the vehicular emission by 25-30 per cent and saving oil consumption by 3.2 billion liters per year. The reducing in oil consumption by new vehicles will help save nearly Rs 7,000 crore in oil import,” said the concept note on V-VMP floated by the ministry on Thursday. The ministry has invited suggestion and objection of stakeholders within a fortnight. According to the concept note, those opting for V-VMP will have to deposit documents relating to the vehicle at the recycling centre. After verification of documents, the owner will get a V-VMP certificate and will get the price for the scrap. Then he has to provide the certificate to the dealer while buying the new vehicle to avail discount. Mats Zuccarello Womens Jersey