Noida Metro races to set world record
The civil works on the Noida-Greater Noida Metro track is about 40% complete. Announcing this on Saturday, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) officials said the Metro corridor was likely to roll by the end of next year and also set a world record as no Metro line has been commissioned in a span of two and a half years. Earlier on Saturday, Dr Mangu Singh, MD, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), conducted an inspection of the corridor and expressed satisfaction with the pace of work, which began in May last year. Singh’s inspection of the corridor started at 9am and continued till 1pm. During the four hours, he carried out a detailed scrutiny of the track quizzing DMRC officials. Singh also issued directions for procurement of two additional cranes to expedite work on the track. Now a total of six cranes will be deployed for work on the link. The MD also visited the facilities – rest room, training room and cafe – put in place for the labour working on the track and shared space with them. According to DMRC officials, work on the Metro line is progressing at a fast pace. Till now, out of a total 1,800 U-girders, 90 U-girders have already been cast. Piling work on stations is also being carried simultaneously at all 21 stations along the track. Piling work has been completed in 19 ot the 21 stations. Currently, concourse casting is being done at those stations which have completed piling work. Concourse casting has also been completed at seven stations and platforms will be cast next. The first station to be completed will be the Sector 72 Metro station in Noida, which is likely to be in place by the end of May. The second station to follow will be the Delta station in Greater Noida, officials said. Officials further told TOI that they had also completed 70% work on the depot in Greater Noida. The depot will cater to the requirements of the corridor and is to be used for maintenance and servicing of the Metro coaches that will run on the route. The depot will be environment-friendly and its boundary wall and building will be equipped with solar panels. The electricity generated by the panels will be used by the depot for lighting its building. Coming up across 50 acres of land in Greater Noida, it will also house a ‘Metro security park’. The MoU between DMRC and Noida & Greater Noida Authorities was signed in October 2014 and the construction is being executed by CEC-SAM India JV. Once the track, costing Rs 5,533 crore, is in place it would not only provide a fast link between the two townships but also bring these places closer to the national capital.
Ajmer, Kota at work to realise ‘smart’ dream
Ajmer and Kota districts which couldn’t make it to the list of first 20 cities for smart city project will be vying for a spot in the second list. After these two districts were rejected in the first round, the state government is upgrading its smart city proposal and working on the shortcomings highlighted by the Centre. The reworked proposal will be submitted before June, the final deadline. In this regard, the state government has appointed a consultant firm, ICRA, for preparing action plans for these two cities. A local self-governance (LSG) official said, “The state government has appointed a new consultant to prepare the detailed project report (DPR). We are hopeful that these cities will be selected in the second list. The DPR will be submitted in June.” For Ajmer, the state government has also joined hands with US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) which will assist administration and municipal officials in preparing a roadmap for the smart city proposal. After these cities failed to secure a position in first list, the Union ministry of urban development had announced a provision of ‘fast-track round’. In all, 23 cities will compete in the ‘fast-track round’ to qualify for the second list. As per the proposal, Ajmer will be developed on retrofitting model, while Kota will be developed on green-field model. An official explained that there will be three approaches – retrofitting, redevelopment and green-field development. Under the retrofitting scheme, a city can undertake an area of minimum 500 acres and implement the scheme in three years. Similarly, in the case of green-field development, the project area can be a vacant land spread over at least 250 acres and the project can be completed in 10 years. For Ajmer, the state had earlier proposed to develop 1,334-acre area, out of which Rs 925 crore was proposed for area-based development and Rs 341 crore for pan-city development. The major development was proposed in the north side of Anna Sagar Lake in Ajmer. Similarly, for Kota which is to be developed as a green city, the state had proposed 395 acre area adjoined to Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) near Ranpur Village. It was proposed that Rs 1,045 crore will be spent to develop the area, and Rs 437 crore for the pan city development.
Does elevated road projects mean a boon or nightmare for residents of Bengaluru
What is common between chief minister Siddaramaiah’s budget and the Bengaluru civic corporation’s budget? Both of them show a vigour to pursue elevated road projects for Bengaluru, a city struggling to manage its nightmarish traffic. Well, almost as if it is the single, sure-shot solution to this ever growing problem. A number of projects, some new and some old, have been announced. One of them is estimated to cost a whopping Rs 18,000 crore: a 100-km road-on-road elevated corridor covering Silk Board to Hebbal, KR Puram to Tumakuru Road and Varthur to Mysuru Road. Another one is a flyover from Pipeline Road to Ring Road through Kurubarahalli, for which BBMP has earmarked Rs50 crore. Then there are older plans such as the steel bridge from Minerva Circle to Town Hall at a cost of Rs 134 crore and a similar one at Shivananda Circle that is estimated to cost Rs 46.7 crore. The cost of grade separators at Suranjan Das Road, Old Madras Road, Sarjapura-Haralur junction, Hulimavu junction, Arakere junction, Sony World junction and a flyover from Cox Town to Banaswadi -which have all been announced with much fanfare -is yet to be determined. Meanwhile, Sathya Sankaran, a founding member of civic group Praja RAAG, has floated a petition on Change.org, urging the government to drop elevated roads or flyover projects and focus instead on ramping up public transport. With over 200 signatures so far, the petition has sparked off a debate among experts on whether flyovers could mean a boon or simply end up being irrevocable mistakes. ET gets two experts to join the debate.
In 2015-16, record 6,029 km of highways constructed
The construction of highways touched an all-time high of 6,029 km during 2015-16. Prior to this, a maximum of 5,732 km of national highway was constructed during 2012-13. Officials said while NHAI reported construction of nearly 2,000 km, the rest came from works done by the road transport ministry through its agencies including state public works departments, Border Roads Organisation and ministry’s entity NHIDCL for undertaking works in hill states. TOI on January 10 had first reported how the total construction was set to cross 6,000-km mark. Though surpassing 2012-13 record by merely constructing one extra km per day may not be that big achievement, sources said the increased pace of construction will now continue for the next few years.
Smart cities need clear legal & jurisdictional framework for private investment: Eckart Wuerzner, Mayor of Heidelberg
Smart cities in India have a big potential to attract private investment from contracting companies if the government formulates a clear legal and jurisdictional framework, according to Eckart Wuerzner, Mayor of the City of Heidelberg in Germany. “If India formulates a proper framework, there will be a lot of foreign and domestic companies willing to put their money in contracting business in smart cities,” Wuerzner told ETRealty.com on the sidelines of the 28th Wilhelm von Pochhammmer Memorial Lecture organised by Federation of Indo-German Socities in India in collaboration with Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung and India International Centre. “Smart cities need private money and contracting is a big concept that can be utilized in India,” he said, adding, “It’s not always subsidy, but a clever marketing instrument to make companies invest.” The government also should give subsidies and implementation strategies to companies, according to him. Citing the example of Heidelberg, which is an ideal smart city, Wuerzner said the government can easily frame their fair deal contracts under the Indian law and implement it. “Technical potential is there in India already, but it is not being utilised at present,” he said. The mayor of the City of Heidelberg also insisted on increasing the citizen participation in smart cities. Citing the example of Germany, Wuerzner said citizens should be made accountable for basic things like waste or traffic management by making the services expensive for the defaulters and subsidising the ones who follow the rules properly. “This is a push and pull approach, which might not go well with the citizens initially, but will be merged in the system with time,” he said, adding, “Impulse programmes for citizens to help them partner in the strategy also can help in better implementation of plans.” The mayor also highlighted the need of sustainable city planning in big cities like Delhi or Mumbai, planning residential, shopping, economic business areas, etc, together. “If this is planned together, this reduced the traffic in the city,” he said. He insisted that smart cities should promote vertical development and need high density areas with concentration of citizens. “A system like SAP or any other system can easily run in such high density cities, leading to proper monitoring and implementation of plans.” The government, both at the state and local body levels, have to play a major part for the success of the smart cities, according to Wuerzner. Legalized strategy plan, annual or by-annual reports and self commitment of political leaders of both state and local bodies should be the major pillars of growth. “Government should be best practice example. Initiatives such as electrical buses, bikes for employees, are some of the measures that the government should take on its end,” he said. Wuerzner also highlighted the need to Empower the urban local bodies with experts. “If you don’t have them, the link is missing,” he said. Germany has recently partnered with India to develop Kochi, Bhubaneswar and Coimbatore as smart cities. “Most important thing that Germany can bring into India is developing a vision, clear implementation plan, controlling system to implement and a time frame,” said Wuerzner.
Centre releases Rs.12, 230 Crore to States for MGNREGA
Union Minister for Rural Development Shri Birender Singh said that the Ministry of Rural Development has released a central share of Rs. 12,230 Crore to the States in connection with the implementation of its flagship programme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The Minister also underlined that this fund release will take care of the pending wage liability of the States for the previous Financial Year (2015-16) and help the States to run the Programme during the new Financial Year (2016-17). He reiterated that the Government is committed to ensuring flow of adequate resources for fulfilling the programme objectives. The Ministry has also decided to maintain 60:40 wage-material ratio at the District level now to ensure creation of good quality assets in the rural areas. Rebutting the reports published in a section of media that there are arrears of wages of over Rs. 8000 crore under MGNREGA for the 2015-2016 financial year, Shri Singh said, in fact, the year 2015-16 has registered expenditure under MGNREGA to the tune of Rs. 41,371 crore, which is the highest expenditure under the programme since its inception. Out of this expenditure Rs.30,139 crore has gone towards payment of wages. This has allowed for the highest employment generation over the past three years and the best achievement on key parameters over the last three years such as works taken up, women participation (55%) and 95% of payments through electronic fund management system. The Minister further emphasized that the Ministry of Rural Development has brought large scale reforms in the implementation of the programme in such a manner that it is oriented more towards combating the agrarian distress and meet the demand for work in drought affected areas creating durable & income generating assets mostly linked to augmentation of irrigation potential. In the year 2015-16, states were asked to provide employment where needed, particularly drought affected areas, with the assurance of making required resources available. The Ministry expanded the entitlement from 100 to 150 days of work to households in drought affected regions of ten states. 20.48 Lakh households in these regions have availed this opportunity and completed more than 100 days of work. At the national level 44 Lakh households have completed 100 days. To further bring down the delay in payment of wages, the Ministry in line with the Cabinet decision has introduced National electronic Fund Management System (NeFMS) in the current financial year. In 2016-17, as part of their Labour Budget, the States have proposed to construct 8.82 lakh farm ponds and 10.39 lakh organic compost pits to boost the agriculture sector. The States have also proposed to construct 33 lakh Individual House Hold Latrines (IHHL) as part of Swachh Bharat Mission and 63,000 Anganwadi centre buildings to strengthen rural infrastructure. The road map for 2016-17 will focus on accelerating the momentum gained in employment generation while further strengthening the monitoring system.
Delhi-Meerut Expressway stretch may get Cabinet nod in 15 days
To ease traffic congestion in the national capital, the Cabinet is likely to give its nod to widening of the crucial UP Gate to Dasna stretch of the Rs 7,566-crore Delhi-Meerut Expressway in a fortnight. “The proposal for widening of 19.28 km UP Gate to Dasna stretch of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway is likely to get Cabinet nod in another fortnight,” a source privy to the development said. The other two stretches – Akshardham temple to UP Gate and Dasna to Hapur have already been approved by the Cabinet. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 31, 2015 had unveiled a plaque to mark the laying of the foundation stone of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway to be built at a cost of Rs 7,566 crore that includes construction of 28-km long 14 lane Delhi-Dasna section. The National Highway will show a way to freedom from pollution, he had said. Earlier Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the project will reduce the distance between the national capital and Meerut to 40-45 minutes from 3 hours at present. The expressway will give a big thrust to development in western Uttar Pradesh and will make travel to cities like Dehradun, Moradabad and Bareilly much faster, he has said. The Delhi-Meerut Expressway would be an access controlled highway and 31 traffic signals have been removed from the stretch. While, the work on Delhi-Dasna section would cost of Rs 2,869 crore, the construction of 46 km long six-lane Dasna-Meerut section of the expressway will cost Rs 3,575 crore. Besides, six-laning of 22 km long Dasna-Hapur section of NH 24 will cost Rs 1,122 crore.
Government proposes to build green underpasses for new national highways
The roads ministry has proposed to construct 25 leafy underpasses for animal movement as part of 10 national highways that pass through forests and wildlife sanctuaries in order to ensure environmental clearance for the projects. The measures will add to the cost of construction, but that isn’t a worry since these will reduce the impact on the natural habitat of animals, a senior National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) official said. These proposed highways would pass through sanctuaries such as the Madhav National Park near Gwalior; Chambal and the corridors connecting the Kanha and Pench tiger reserves; Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand and dense forests of Assam. Cost of construction for these nearly 1,900 km of highways is estimated to be about Rs 20,000 crore. The cave-like, concrete underpasses that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has proposed will be layered with natural soil so that they resemble the natural habitat of the animals. The underpasses will be fitted with CCTV cameras to monitor the movement of animals. According to a senior ministry official, these structures will be constructed so biodiversity is untouched. Stretches passing through green corridors will have fencing to prevent vehicles from entering the core zone. Speed of vehicles will be restricted to 40 km an hour. The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and National Tiger Conservation Authority have prepared draft guidelines for mitigation of impact of linear projects in forest ranges. For instance, height of underpasses has been suggested to be a minimum of six metres to help elephants. The government is working with the WII to implement these. “Animals have a set pattern and route of movement according to which special paths underneath the elevated road stretch would be made,” the NHAI official said. State wildlife boards will also be drafted into the projects.
Singapore looking at upgrading Indian cities, transport sector: Official
After providing the master plan for developing Andhra Pradesh’s new capital Amaravati, Singapore is looking at “retrofitting” of more Indian cities and plans to upgrade the transportation sector, a senior official said today. Singapore provided the master plan for Amaravati, the new capital city of Andhra Pradesh, setting the stage for crucial participation in the massive development of India. Yeoh Keat Chuan, managing director of state-owned Economic Development Board, said Singapore is looking at participating in retrofitting of Indian cities and plans to upgrade its transportation sector, increasing its focus on Smart Cities. “We are looking at re-engineering transportation sector,” Yeoh said, citing it as one of the opportunities for participating in the retrofitting of older Indian cities. Such solutions would help reduce congestion on the stressed infrastructure, he said after addressing some 1,200 delegates at the IIMPACT 2016 conference and exhibition being held here on April 8-9. He said several Indian, Chinese and South East Asian companies are collaborating and setting up partnerships and joint ventures in Singapore. “Singapore is a good location for international companies to collaborate and form partnerships,” he said, pointing out that there are over 6,000 Indian, 5,000 Chinese and 10,000 Southeast Asian companies operating from the island state. Yeoh spoke about the 50-year development of Singapore to turn it into a global business centre, having developed expertise in urban redevelopment and water solutions. A call was also made to increase focus on developing infrastructure in India with Singapore being an intermediary for funding projects. “Structurally, there are a lot of things happening in India which can be enduring, can be durable, but more importantly the infrastructure that needs to be created has to be both competed for and collaborated with markets like Singapore,” said Shyam Srinivasan, chief executive officer of the Federal Bank. “Singapore’s message for India would be for urbanisation,” Sam Pitroda, a former technology advisor to the Prime Minister of India, said. Singapore can also help India in its cleaning initiatives. “Singapore can help us design a strategy in cleaning,” said Pitroda at the conference, organized by the Global IIM Alumni. He believes cleaning India would require massive investments in machinery, training, logistics, support and landfill among others which requires an elaborate plan. Pitroda also underlined the importance for India to continue on developing its infrastructure to support the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
Nitin Gadkari urged to retain three roads with Border Roads Organisation in Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh has requested Union Minister Nitin Gadkari for retention of three strategic roads with the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in the state. The roads — Joram-Koloriang (158 km), Anini-Meka (235 km) and Demwe-Hawai (165 km) — have already been handed over from BRO to the National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited ( NHIDCL). Chief Minister Kalikho Pul, who is currently camping in the national capital, yesterday took up the matter with the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, an official release said here today. In the event of natural calamities or any law and order issues, BRO with its adequate manpower, machinery and dedicated line of communication was better equipped to handle the situation, Pul said. Gadkari assured that he would look into the matter and asked the state government to monitor the works of the BRO, the release said.