First leg of KMP expressway opens after 7-year delay
After a delay of nearly seven years, the first leg of Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) expressway – Palwal (NH-2) to Manesar (NH-8) – was opened to traffic on Tuesday. This will work as a bypass for vehicles coming from Jaipur side towards Faridabad or Agra and similarly for those heading towards Jaipur and Mumbai from Agra or Kolkata. This is likely to reduce traffic on Delhi roads since at present the vehicles coming from all NHs use the national capital as transit. For the first two months, users don’t need to pay for using this 52 km access-control expressway stretch. However, later cars will need to pay Rs 1.3 per km while heavy vehicles have to pay Rs 4.5 per km as toll charge. Four toll plazas have been built to ensure that commuters pay for the stretch they travel rather than paying for the entire corridor. “Once we complete the WPE and the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), traffic on Delhi roads will reduce by half and there will be less air pollution,” highway minister Nitin Gadkari said after inaugurating the project. Later in the day, addressing industry leaders at a CII summit, he said there is a proposal to develop logistic hubs along the two expressways so that big godowns can shift out of Delhi. Haryana government officials said though the remaining Palwal and Manesar stretch would be completed in the next one year, the already completed stretch can work as a bypass for Delhi. “We have very good highway network – a mix of NH and state highways – that commuters can use to travel between NH-2 ( Delhi-Agra) and NH-1 (Delhi-Panipat). They will end up travelling only 10 km extra, but can avoid Delhi’s traffic congestion,” said an official. He added they will publicise this alternate route for commuters to save their time and also for benefit of Delhi, which has become one of the most polluted cities across the globe. The Haryana government has already earmarked 1 km on both sides of KMP as controlled area for future development and a series of “theme cities” have been planned. Now these projects will revive and help push economic activities, sources said. On Tuesday, Gadkari also promised major relief to lakhs of residents of Palwal by announcing to build an elevated corridor on NH-2 covering all the four intersections within the city. Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal made this demand. The minister also promised to undertake construction of a bridge across the Yamuna on Hasanpur road connecting Greater Noida.
NHAI starts work on first phase of pod transport
Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), the proposed pod taxi service between Sirhaul and Rajiv Chowk in Gurgaon, could soon become a reality, after NHAI presented a feasibility report of the project and invited expressions of interest (EOI) from international agencies, including the favourite Metrino of Poland, to start work on it. Highway administrator A K Sharma said the agency to carry out the 25-year build-operate-transfer (BOT) project, will be selected by May 2. According to the plan, the first phase will be 24 km long and will cost Rs 882 crore. The project envisages small, fully automatic, driverless pods moving on a suspended network 5-10m above ground. There will be 14 stations on the Sirhaul-Rajesh Pilot Chowk route along NH-8, the first phase.They include Udyog Vihar, Cyber City, Atlas Chowk, Jharsa, Signature Towers, Iffco Chowk, Rajiv Chowk and Subhash Chowk. The report proposed three routes – Dhaula Kuan-Manesar, via Cyber City, Mahipalpur, Rajiv Chowk and IMT Chowk (37 km); Udyog Vihar-Sheetla Mata Road, via Palam Vihar (22 km); and Udyog Vihar-Rajesh Pilot Chowk via Cyber City, Atlas Chowk, Rajiv Chowk and Tau Devi Lal stadium (24 km). Sharma said the PRT will pass through several areas of the old city and not just the Dhaula Kuan-Manesar stretch.
Road building pace at all-time high of 20 km a day: Nitin Gadkari
Road construction in India has accelerated to an all-time high pace of 20 kilometres per day, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday. Gadkari said that his ministry will be constructing 25 km of roads per day by the time the Narendra Modiled NDA government completes two years next month. The current pace is a third more than the previous best of 15 km per day achieved in 2012. “We’ll touch our target of 30 kilometres per day in another five-six months,” Gadkari said at industry body CII’s annual session. In the current financial year, the government has a target of constructing 10,000 km of greenfield highways, for which it has made a budgetary allocation of Rs 57,000 crore. Gadkari said that his ministry has proposed the formation of dispute resolution mechanism to the finance ministry for projects that are stuck. “We have requested the finance ministry to form a four-member dispute resolution cell for road projects for early implementation of stuck projects,” he said. About 14 road projects with an investment of over Rs 25,000 crore are stuck due to various reasons including cost escalation. Gadkari said adoption of a projectspecific approach to address the issue of stalled projects has already resolved about 85% of these projects. “The emphasis now has been on awarding the projects under the innovative hybrid annuity and toll-operate-transfer mode so that there are more opportunities for private sector investment,” Gadkari said. The minister said the government has already awarded contracts worth Rs 1.8 lakh crore. “We’ll award road construction projects worth Rs 3 lakh crore by 2017,” he said. He also urged the private sector to develop lighthouses and islands in and around waterways which will spur tourism as well.
Big boost for real estate in Gurgaon as Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway opens up
The opening of Palwal-Manesar stretch of Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway has come as a shot in the arm of developers in the area who are expecting unprecedented gains due to increased connectivity. The 53-km stretch of KMP Expressway was inaugurated on Tuesday by Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari and chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar. “The much awaited inauguration of KMP Expressway will give a fillip to the surface infrastructure landscape in NCR, and in particular benefit the residential real estate micro markets in closer proximity,” said Navin M Raheja, CMD, Raheja Developers Limited. He added that the logistics/warehousing industry and corresponding real estate developments are expected to benefit hugely in the immediate future. “It will ease the traffic in Delhi considerably, provide good connectivity to Gurgaon from other cities of the NCR and above all, the prospects of real estate projects will brighten due to improved accessibility”, said R K Arora, chairman, Supertech Limited. According to a senior HSIIDC official, the major advantage of the stretch will be the reduction in traffic entering Delhi and Gurgaon which will bring down road congestion as well as pollution levels. “It will bring substantial reduction in pollution levels in the entire NCR. This is one of the major infrastructure projects planned to ease traffic congestion,” said Arora. Earlier, minister Nitin Gadkari also said that pollution levels in Delhi would come down by 50% due to the eastern and western peripheral expressways. Meanwhile, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced that the pending 83-km Kundli -Palwal stretch will be completed within a year.
Govt releases Rs 345 cr for ‘Smart Jaipur, Udaipur’
Pink City is now a step closer to being a ‘smart city’, with the Centre releasing Rs 186 crore allocated to it under the ‘Smart City Mission’. The amount assigned for Udaipur under the scheme (Rs 159.20 crore) has also been released. It was in January this year that the central government set the ball rolling on its Smart Cities plan by announcing the first list of 20 cities, which included two from the state – Jaipur and Udaipur. “The funds were sanctioned on March 31. We are about to get the money and would initiate work under the Smart City Mission soon,” said local self-government department’s principal secretary Manjit Singh. The meeting of the board of directors of Jaipur Smart Mission Limited, which is the special purpose vehicle (SPV) for taking forward the smart city proposal, is scheduled for April 6 at JMC headquarters. Issues like appointment of a chief executive officer (CEO) for the SPV will be discussed at the meeting. The SPV has been registered under the Companies Act, 2013. It has a 10-member board of directors that includes Jaipur mayor Nirmal Nahata, Jaipur development commissioner (JDC) Shikhar Agarwal, Jaipur collector Krishna Kunal and JMC CEO Ashutosh Pednekar, among others. “The chairman of the board is Manjit Singh. The chief executive officer (CEO) will be appointed from outside. This issue will be discussed at the board’s first meeting,” said the official. The CEO will be supervising and managing day-to-day operations of the SPV. The person would also help the board in overseeing the implementation of the SPV’s long- and short-term plans.
L&T wins Rs 2,125-crore contracts including major Karnataka highway project
Infrastructure major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has won contracts worth Rs 2,125 crore, including a major highway project in Karnataka. “The construction arm of Larsen & Toubro has won orders worth Rs 2,125 crore across its various businesses. The transportation infrastructure business has bagged a new engineering, procurement and construction order worth Rs 821 crore from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI),” the company today said in a statement. The contract is for four-laning of the Addahole (Gundya) to Bantwal cross of NH-75 (old NH no. 48) in Karnataka. The project is scheduled be completed in 30 months and involves construction of 63 kms of four-lane dual carriage way with concrete pavement in addition to the construction of 14.5 km of service roads, two flyovers, two major bridges, 14 minor bridges, nine underpasses and a toll plaza. “The order is an index of L&T’s expansion in the road infrastructure space, with the company having bagged prestigious road and bridge projects both in the international and domestic markets, thanks to its well-established capabilities,” the company said. It said its Smart World and Communication business has bagged orders worth Rs 761 crore, which involve design and implementation of safe cities using integrated security features and intelligent and integrated traffic management systems. The company said additional orders worth Rs 543 cr have also been received from various ongoing jobs of Power Transmission & Distribution and Buildings & Factories businesses. Larsen & Toubro is an Indian multinational engaged in technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing and financial services with over USD 15 billion in revenue.
Telangana to set up two electronic clusters in Hyderabad, eying $7.5billion business
Telangana, which on Monday unveiled Information Technology policy with various incentives pertaining to land and power, and reimbursement of stamp duty and registration fee among others, is eying $7.5 billion of production of electronics by 2020 from $1 billion now. Towards achieving this ambitious target, Telangana proposes to invest heavily on IT parks and infrastructure for the ICT companies in the cities and rural areas, including two large electronics manufacturing clusters in nearly 1,000 acres on the Hyderabad outskirts. Aimed at promoting the use of information technology across verticals, India’s newest state also unveiled sectoral policies focussed on innovation, electronics, gaming and animation and rural technology. Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy unveiled Telangana’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) policy, while other sectoral policies were launched by Manipal Global Education’s chairman Mohandas Pai and Niti Ayog’s member VK Saraswat. Telangana’s IT minister KT Rama Rao said, “We have the potential to grow in sectors like gaming and animation, cyber security etc., and with such dedicated policies, it will give an impetus to the sectors as also boost our IT production.” Telangana government hopes to attract investments worth $3 billion in the Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) sector by 2020. The ICT policy gives thrust on acquiring large tracts of land for IT/ITeS SEZs and the government plans to rope in global agencies like World Bank, World Economic Forum for setting up incubators focused on rural and social enterprises. The government has also inked 28 deals with several partners to promote skill training in the state. The entities that entered into agreements with Telangana include Development Bank of Singapore, University of Cambridge, TiE, Cisco, Microsoft India, CDAC, YES Bank, Nasscom, Value Labs, Fractal Analytics, LED Manufacturers, Max Touch, Kwality Photonics, Axiom, Aries Group, TalentSprint and IMAI among others. Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said, “We have made easier for companies to set up their units here with our Industrial policy. Under the TSiPass policy, we have given clearances to 1,691 companies under the stipulated 15 days of time and 813 of them are now in stage of production.” Under the innovation policy, Telangana plans to develop one million square feet of work space dedicated to start-ups in five years along with expansion of state backed incubator, T-Hub, to house 900 start-ups and have similar facilities in tier-II cities of the state. As a part of the gaming and animation policy, the state government proposes to create dedicated infrastructure in the form of ‘Game City’ over six lakh square feet of space. It proposes to provide facilities for animation and gaming companies, digital film production houses, music and television studios, training academies and entertainment complexes. “Our policy focusses not only on consolidating our strengths but also on making pioneering efforts into new and emerging areas,” said IT minister Rama Rao, who is also the son of chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. “We might have got on the IT bus later than others in the past, but I am confident that we will not only be on the bus in time but also drive it.”
MBL Infra bags Rs 2,126 crore road devpt projects in UP, Uttarakhand
Construction firm MBL Infrastructures has bagged road development projects worth Rs 2,126 crore from NHAI in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. “MBL Infrastructures Ltd has been awarded the following projects on DBFOT (Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Transfer) Hybrid Annuity basis by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)…worth Rs 2,126 crore,” the company said in a regulatory filing today. First project is worth Rs 942 crore for four-laning of Chutmalpur-Ganeshpur section of NH-72A from 0 km to 16 km and Roorkee-Chutmalpur-Gagalheri section of NH-73 from 0 km to 33 km in the state of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh under NHDP-IV. Second project is worth Rs 1,184 crore for four landing of Gagalheri-Saharanpur-Yamunanagar section of NH-73 from 33 km to 71.64 km state of Uttar Pradesh under NHDP-IV. Construction period is 730 days for both the projects.
European Investment Bank to lend $512 million for Lucknow metro
The European Investment Bank will give 450 million euros ($512 million) in loan to India to finance the construction of Lucknow’s first 23 km-long metro rail line and purchase a fleet of new trains. An agreement on the first tranche of the credit was signed in Brussels on Wednesday during the 13th EU-India summit attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The loan represented the largest project financing by European Union’s official bank, also the world’s largest international public bank, in India since its engagement in the country began more than 20 years ago and the most significant investment in sustainable public transport outside Europe, Luxembourg based European Investment Bank (EIB) said. The 450 million euro ($512 million) long-term loan – expected to cover half of the total project cost for the Lucknow Metro – will be used to finance the first metro line in Lucknow, including both construction of the 23 km-long new metro line and a fleet of metro trains. The line is the first part of a broader metro network planned for Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh. When it becomes operational, the new metro is expected to increase the use of public transport from 10 per cent to an estimated 27 per cent in the city of three million people, the bank said in a statement. EIB president Werner Hoyer said the bank would expand its support for long-term investments in India and unveiled plans to open a regional representation for South Asia in New Delhi by the end of this year. The EIB has supported long-term investment across India that has helped the country harness renewable energy, strengthened industry and reduced carbon emissions. The bank recognises that the time is right to increase its engagement in India, Hoyer said. “The first metro line in Lucknow is a flagship project not only for Uttar Pradesh and India, but also for the bank’s strengthened global commitment to support transformational investment,” Hoyer said. The loan agreement was signed by India’s Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the EU Manjeev Singh Puri and EIB Vice President for Asia Jonathan Taylor in the presence of Modi, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk. The EIB had committed loans totalling more than 1.34 billion euros for longterm investment in India since the cooperation began in 1993.
Modi govt to soon launch smart villages project: Rajnath
After launching smart city project, Modi-led NDA government at the Centre would soon launch “smart village” project in a bid to ensure all-round development of the villages. While inaugurating the exhibition on crop insurance scheme at Ganna Sansthan on Saturday, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that those who were critical of the Modi government that villages were not being made smart, the fact is that soon a project to make villages smart would be launched. In the first phase, the Centre proposed to convert around 300 villages throughout the country as smart, Rajnath said and added that such villages would have better infrastructure, connectivity and improved irrigation system to name a few. To a question on Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s allegation that the Centre was responsible for the underdevelopment of Bundelkhand, Rajnath said that the UP government should fulfil its responsibility instead of indulging in blamegame. The Centre was ready to cooperate with the state governments wherever the need will be, the Home Minister further said. Once again showering praise one former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Singh said that when the former PM had talked about linking rivers for better irrigation and ensuring balance, many people had criticised and termed the project as impossible. However, now the river linking project was going on successfully at several places including Madhya Pradesh, where linking of two rivers have been almost completed, the Union Minister said and added with this river linking project would be further expedited. The Home Minister later visited Integral University where Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptullah joined him. Both Heptullah and Rajnath had come for the launching of skill development mission at 10 madrassas. Expressing surprise over being invited for the first time in this university, Rajnath said that next time round he would not only come to the University but will also have interaction with both students and faculty of the university.