Road developers see polls to slow NHAI targets
August 3, 2013
Coming elections in the country are going to cause delay in road works. Road developers are set to see challenging business environment as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which missed project award targets in the last year by a huge margin, may not meet them.
A senior Hindustan Construction Company official said that on one side the government may try to implement things quickly, but by the time it happens the model code of conduct will come into play. There are just six months left as post December this year the entire government machinery will come to standstill, he said.
Analysts too said while the build operate and transfer (BOT) projects will be constrained due to economic slowdown and fund crunch, the engineering procurement and construction (EPC) projects would slow due to elections. Edelweiss Capital, said that a tough economic environment will constrain BOT awards.
Achieving the fiscal 2014 target hinges largely on award of 3,500-4,000 km EPC projects. The timing of central and state elections will also cast its shadow on the project award, Edelweiss said in a recent report.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had set an ambitious target of awarding 8,800 km of road length in fiscal 2013, which was raised by the Prime Minister Office to 9,500 km. NHAI, however, was able to award only 1,112 km projects. For this fiscal, the road ministry has again set an ambitious target of awarding 9,000 km projects, about 50% through the EPC route.
Source-http://infrastructuretoday.co.in
L&T explores business trust model for IDPL’s road portfolio to raise Rs 2500 crore
August 3, 2013
 |
Currently L&T IDPL has a portfolio of 18 roads, 10 of which are operational. All the projects are housed under individual special purpose vehicles (SPVs). The total project outlay for the road projects is Rs 21,600 crore. L&T is among the top two road developers in the country.
Interestingly, the trust proposal has come at a time when L&T IDPL is already in advanced negotiations with a clutch of sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and long only investors to raise up to $500 million by diluting 15-20% at an initial equity valuation in excess of $2 billion. Abu Dhabi-headquartered Mubadala Development Corporation and Khazannah, the investment vehicle of the government of Malaysia and a global pension fund are among the potential suitors. Morgan Stanley has already been advising L&T IDPL in those live negotiations.
The sources quoted earlier added that the entire matter is still at a preliminary stage and may or may not translate into a dea. “The proposals are still being evaluated and no final decision has been made as yet. It is still preliminary brain storming,” said a senior official involved directly in ongoing discussions.
Sources add that L&T’s management would not want to upset the ongoing discussions and are evaluating if an equity investment in the parent platform (L&T IDPL) can co-exist with the listing of the operational road asset at level below via the trust model.
“Tapping alternate markets have always been part and parcel of the ideas pool for IDPL. It’s not a new or novel idea. Even some Indian companies have tried it in the past. The company’s operating team will take a final call on its strategy to find growth capital. We haven’t constrained them. Based on their decision, they will come to the board and also to L&T with a concrete proposal…They haven’t so far,” said R Shankar Raman, CFO, L&T and a director of L&T IDPL.
Raman felt that both transactions could potentially co-exist. “Infrastructure is a nascent sector, so are the different investment routes. This structure will evolve over time. If the parent’s mandate is to identify, develop and commission good projects, then post commissioning you don’t have to run them yourself for the next 35 years,” he added.
“Despite the overall slump in infrastructure and considerable macro economic headwinds, the PE transaction at L&T IDPL has progressed considerably even though it’s been slow and challenging. Serious negotiations are on with an interested party and a deal should close in the next few months. So this new development has been a surprise to us but will not be at the cost of the other. The management will only proceed if the potential financial investor does not have an objection,” said one of the sources mentioned above.
However when contacted L&T IDPL CEO K Venkatesh said he had no such plans to list the road portfolio separately or create an investment trust. “Bankers keep suggesting ideas. But we are not looking at that option. Our plan is to get private equity and we have reached a stage where some firms have shown a lot of interest and we are going ahead with due diligence.”
As per new plan, a separate trust will be created where all or most of the operational roads will get transferred. This trust then listed overseas and will be traded amongst investors who look for annualised cash flows or yields. The advisors have suggested three markets — Singapore, Hong Kong and London — for a potential listing where there is still traction for Indian paper.
The move is aimed at raising funds for the roads to meet ongoing and future capital requirements and also to trim the existing debt of parent L&T. If the debt from the operating road projects were to be transferred into a separate trust, the strain on L&T’s consolidated books will reduce significantly. Being an infrastructure developer, L&T IDPL is a cash guzzler but its debt gets reflected in the parent’s books impacting its credit ratings adversely.
Till 31st March 2013, excluding L&T standalone and L&T Financials, the group had Rs 29,000 crore of debt – a lion’s share was on account of L&T IDPL.
Unlike companies, business trusts aren’t required to show profits before distributing available cash funds. As a result, investors can get returns even before profits are generated. This is useful for businesses that generate high cash flows, but see a substantial depreciation of their assets — in this case, capital-intensive highway projects.
“Forming an investment trust looks like a viable option on paper. But in reality, a company like L&T would require to have ample number of operational projects with toll collection data history to make a move like this. Listing an investment trust overseas entails some degree of forex risk too. Also, in with domestic interest rates being high and uncertainty over GDP growth, it may be challenging to get very good valuations,” warned Nitin Bhasin, analyst, Ambit Capital.
Beyond roads, L&T IDPL’s portfolio of 27 infrastructure assets includes three ports and a metro rail project. Out of that, Rs 16,400-crore Hyderabad Metro project is one of the most ambitious BOT (build operate and transfer) asset.
The company has also partnered with Tata Steel for an equal venture for the Rs 3,000-crore Dhamra Port, with a debt equity of 2:1. As on March 2013, the total project cost of all the SPVs put together is a whopping Rs 65,600 crore. While the equity is Rs 5500 crore, the residual equity commitment of Rs 8700 crore is yet to flow in. The debt in the projects stood at Rs 51,400 crore.
Massive infusion of funds for developing 6418 km of highways in Northeast India
August 3, 2013
Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Oscar Fernandes who was in Guwahati on Friday reviewed the progress of National Highway works.
Fernandes said that a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was held on July 18 last to review the status of development projects in the region and discussed steps to accelerate the same.
The ministry has decided to carry out a feasibility study for the newly declared National Highway NH-127 B connecting Srirampur (on NH-31 C) to Phulbari via Dhubri including construction of a bridge over river Brahmaputra. Besides improving the connectivity for Assam, this would also provide an alternative shorter connectivity between Nongstoin in Meghalaya with West Bengal and will provide greater access to Assam and Meghalaya.
The ministry has technically vetted the proposal of the Ministry of DONER for construction of a new bridge across river Barak to connect Silchar town as an alternative to the existing Sadarghat Bridge and widen the NH-37 between Numaligarh — Jorhat — Demow — Dibrugarh to 4-lane standards on BOT ( Annuity) basis.
Secretary to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Vijay Chibber also announced that from now onwards all works by Public Works Department and Border Border Roads Organisation (BRO)will be implemented under EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) mode instead of the conventional item rate contract system for effective implementation of projects.
Source-http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
Govt plans Rs 1,260cr hi-tech drive to make Delhi safer
August 2, 2013
Dwaipayan Ghosh, TNN |
NEW DELHI: A Rs 1,260-crore mega project promises to change the face of policing in the capital. Conceived after the Nirbhaya gang rape, the Union home ministry’s Safe City Project will put the entire criminal database in the hands of the cop on duty through the latest IT tools and monitor public places through a wide network of CCTVs.The high-tech plan covers everything from video analytics to facial scanning. Once implemented, the system will enable police personnel to run a background check on any suspicious person or vehicle anywhere in the city. Other components of the system will help in detecting explosives, alerting about perimeter intrusion, reading biometrics, detecting speed violations at night, and even analyzing prisoner movement and digital crime mapping.Delhi Police has already taken the first steps to implement the project, to be funded by the home ministry through its mega city policing plan. PricewaterhouseCoopers has been hired as consultant on various technology initiatives for a Rs 6-crore fee and the World Bank is expected to contribute Rs 40 crore for the project.The final amount, though, will be decided by the MHA, which has been sent the proposal. Senior police officers say PWC has been tasked to prepare detailed project reports and requests for proposals, bring implementation agencies on board and manage the implementation, review and improvement of new systems.
The idea behind the Safe City Project is simple—effective policing, but it is a complex system built on four components. The two most important parts are its Integrated Intelligent Surveillance Systems (IISS) and the Automated Traffic Management Systems (ATMS), followed by capacity building and initiatives for upgrading. The IISS at the ground level will mean that all officers on the road will use hand-held personal digital assistant (PDA) devices that are no less than a computer. The PDAs will have online access, enabling an officer to check whether the car he has hailed for inspection is stolen or the driver has a crime record. At a larger level, these single checks will help police secure the city.
At present, Delhi has CCTVs installed in 26 markets and at five border points. Installation work in 28 other markets and 10 border points is 65% done. CCTV installation at the Supreme Court, high court and district court complexes is also over. All these steps will bring the total number of surveillance cameras up to 5,333.
Once the Safe City Project starts rolling, another 6,625 cameras will be installed at 479 locations while the traffic police are expected to install 5,000 CCTV cameras at important intersections, taking the total to 16,928 CCTV cameras covering every corner of the city.
Delhi Police’s cyber cell led by joint CP Sandeep Goel, the special cell led by joint CP MM Oberoi and the traffic police led by additional CP Anil Shukla will oversee implementation of the project in the next two years. However, vendors who win the project bids will be paid for the five years, with the extra three years allotted for maintenance.
“The verification facilities will be available to PCR and beat officers and the hand-held devices will authenticate the criminal history of a person,” said joint CP Sandeep Goel, adding that police vehicles will be equipped with automatic number plate readers and CCTV footage will be analyzed in real time.
The ATMS will be a unified solution for traffic problems. It will be able to track e-challans, check speeding at night with night-vision speed detectors. It will also analyze the peak loads and junction management.
Other initiatives under the project include a PCR upgrade, cyber security, training of field officers, data integration with private entities like hotels at the local level and disaster fighting authorities like fire brigade and National Disaster Management Authority. Besides the police’s C4i control room, there will be two data centres, two mobile command centres, 800 mobile terminals for PCR vans and 6,000 hand-held devices. Experts, however, say the project alone cannot make Delhi safer. “Merely bringing in devices and CCTVs is not enough. It is important that Delhi Police customize the software according to ground realities. For example, dense fog and monkeys—common Delhi problems—can play havoc with video analytics. Similarly, connecting 243 locations is not enough. A clever use of wireless and optic solutions will help police get the right kind of digital feed for analysis,” said Dipankar Ghosh, director of a firm which deals with such security solutions.
Times view
State-of-the-art technology is an invaluable aid to policing, but Delhi Police must realize that machines can only be as effective as the men behind them. If all of this money and effort is not to go waste, the men must be trained to use this technology optimally and the equipment must be well-maintained . So often our CCTVs don’t work. That’s just not acceptable. Moreover, modernization is not just about technology; the police force must imbibe a modern mindset — a mindset that’s service-oriented and shows greater gender sensitivity. Only then will the police slogan of “with you, for you, always” have real meaning.
Audit on to make e-way safe
August 2, 2013
Vandana Keelor, TNN |
NOIDA: Almost four months after Noida Authority assigned the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) the task of conducting a safety audit of the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, the report is scheduled to be submitted by May 15. Officials said, taking into account the frequent accidents on the expressway many of which have been fatal, the survey has focused on several infrastructural and safety lapses.
The CRRI report would also help in identifying black spots on the expressway and suggest means to rectify the accident-prone areas to bring down the accident rate on the 24km stretch. The audit report will try to find the deficient safety measures in design implementation of the expressway. “The audit report is being prepared not only because of the accidents but to obtain an expert opinion on the safety design. No matter how good a design is, there will be deficiencies and we want to rectify these,” said Rajeev Yadav, chief project engineer, Noida Authority.
According to officials, besides giving a quality certification of the expressway, CRRI will also provide corrective measures for each of the detected flaws as well as additional suggestion wherever required. “Once we receive the report from CRRI, changes to make the expressway safe for commuters will be implemented,” Yadav said.
In the past four months, faults relating to the curvatures, shoulder width, crash barriers and signages have also been surveyed by CRRI. The agency also gathered data from secondary sources and an analysis is on. The existing design of the central verge, entry/exit points, safety and emergency measures, foot overbridges, etc have also been on the institute’s scanner.
“The number of vehicles using the expressway keeps increasing every year and there is a need to make changes accordingly and to identify and evaluate infrastructure-related problems. With CRRI’s assistance, we will inspect and upgrade the expressway as well as educate people on traffic discipline,” Yadav added.
Since its inception in 2002, the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway has been the site of hundreds of deaths. In the past six months alone, nearly 20 people have lost their lives while about 50 have been left injured. Authority officials have also proposed to implement an Intelligent Transport System which aims to control incidents of over-speeding, fatal accidents and traffic congestion.
Key features of the ITS would be a control room, emergency call box, message signboards, CCTV, speed cameras, VIDS camera and meteorological data system.
Intelligent traffic system for e-way to cost Rs 44 crore
August 2, 2013
Vandana Keelor, TNN |
Officials said ITS is expected to monitor and manage traffic flow on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway. “Once implemented, the system will minimize road accidents on the expressway,” Rama Raman, chairman and CEO, Noida Authority, said.
Once the technical and financial go-aheads are received and tenders finalized, the project will be completed in 12-18 months’ time. “The system will reduce travel time, improve traffic regulation and surveillance and reduce operational costs and incident reaction time,” Raman said.
The system will help measure traffic data in real time, detect incidents and congestions automatically and inform road users about travel time, road closures, diversions, rerouting and all major events. “Important features would include a control room, emergency call box, message signboards, CCTV cameras, speed cameras, automatic number plate readers, VID camera and meteorological data system,” said Sandeep Chandra, the technical head for the project who also holds charge of traffic in the city.
Since its inception in 2002, the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway has been the site of hundreds of deaths. Around 25 people have lost their lives while hundreds have been injured in the last six months.
Cameras would be placed at a height of 14 metres to detect movement up to a distance of 280 metres. “Large LED display boards will caution motorists about road and weather conditions. All stationary vehicles, speeding vehicles and getaway vehicles will be recorded. In the first phase, safety devices like reflective signboards, median markers and road studs will be installed between the Noida entry gate and Mahamaya flyover,” Chandra said.
The most important feature of the system will be reduced response time to an accident. ITS will guide road users to adapt speed to ensure smoother flow of traffic and help coordinate policing and emergency services. “The expressway will be under surveillance 24/7 which will help curb crime on the e-way,” Raman said.
Chinese institute develops 100-megapixel camera
August 2, 2013
By PTI
BEIJING: A Chinese institute claimed to have successfully developed a 100-megapixel camera which could produce high-resolution imaging in the fields of aerial mapping, disaster monitoring and intelligent transportation systems. The IOE3-Kanban camera was developed by the Institute of Optics and Electronics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences making it China’s highest pixel camera, CAS said in a statement. The camera is capable of producing images with 10,240 x 10,240 pixels, the statement said. Moreover, it is small and light, with its widest part measuring only 19.3 cm, state-run Xinhua quoted the statement as saying, adding that it can be used at temperatures ranging from minus 20 degrees centigrade to 55 degrees centigrade. Its high sensitivity and high dynamic range (HDR) features mean it will be useful in high-resolution imaging in the fields of aerial mapping, city planning, disaster monitoring and intelligent transportation systems, the statement said. Intelligent transportation system is aimed to provide innovative services relating to different modes of transport and traffic management, enabling various users to be better informed and make safer, more coordinated, and ‘smarter’ use of transport networks. The camera is equipped with advanced optical systems, camera control systems and high-capacity data recording systems, and it has proven successful in a recent trial use as a part of a national aerial remote-sensing system, it said. The institute also developed an 81-megapixel camera during the 10th Five Year Plan period (2001-2005), and the latest achievement took the researchers two years to develop. A megapixel is one million pixels, and is a term used not only for the number of pixels in an image, but also to express the number of image sensor elements of digital cameras or the number of display elements of digital displays.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
Featured Insights
- Gurugram: Hero Honda chowk to not choke anymore as Delhi-Jaipur flyover set to open soon
- Future of extensive Smart City projects uncertain
- Financiers express interest for Mumbai-Nagpur super expressway
- Indian start-ups to double by 2020: Nasscom
- SBI inks pact with IIT-Kharagpur for fintech innovation
- Supreme Court refuses to stay Allahabad HC order of making DND fly-way toll-free
- An analysis by CRISIL on the pace of road construction
- Mumbai University gives way for better connectivity at BKC
- Debit card scare: A lesson for banks and their customers
- What is a Smart City ?
The ITW Team
 Sachin Bhatia Chief Editor |
Leisure
E-Z Pass Only
Improved Car Seat Belt 40% Less Accidents
NHAI's First ETC(Electronic Toll Collection) PLAZA
- ETC based on Microwave Technology(CEN 278) implemented at Delhi - Gurgaon Super Connectivity
Technology by: -Kapsch Metro JV.
News Categories
- NHAI (184)
- Highway (63)
- BOT (71)
- Projects (61)
- Default (204)
- Road (43)
- About (175)
- Infrastructure (26)
- Tolling (5)
- Investment and Finance (102)
- Expressway (40)
- Construction (15)
- Smart City (87)
- NHDP (33)
- ITS (21)
- Delhi (32)
- Safety (14)
- Toll Plaza (12)
- Toll Management System (2)
- Metro Rail (42)