Santa Cruz link road work in final phase
November 12, 2013
MUMBAI: The much-delayed Santa Cruz-Chembur Link Road Project (SCLR) finally seems to be on its way to completion. The authorities are now beginning work on the most crucial part of the project-that of launching girders above the railway tracks between Vidyavihar and Kurla stations. This is significant as it will connect the over-pass from Kurla (W) to Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Amar Mahal Junction and Nehru Nagar.
The 6.54-km SCLR comprises a double-decker flyover with the top deck catering to traffic between Amar Mahal junction on the Eastern Express Highway and Western Express Highway at Vakola junction via Kalina. The lower deck will provide connectivity between Lokmanya Tilak Terminus and Kurla Dairy in Nehru Nagar from Kalina.
The project is being implemented by the MSRDC.
Ministry eyeing overseas road shows for road projects
November 12, 2013
Ministry is disappointed by dismal response of domestic companies to road projects opened up for bids this year
New Delhi: Disappointed by the dismal response of domestic companies to road projects opened up for bids this year, the road ministry is considering taking its big-ticket projects to international markets.
NHAI, ministry agree on realistic highway award targets
November 12, 2013
Dipak Kumar Dash, TNN |
The ministry has reduced its award targets drastically on both PPP and EPC modes. Against the original target of awarding about 3,200 km on PPP model, NHAI and the ministry have awarded only 700 km. Similarly, while the target to award on EPC was kept at 6,950 km, it has been whittled down to around 5,000 km.
“We are hopeful of awarding about another 1,000 km on EPC of the 2,000 km that NHAI had planned to bid out on PPP mode after the PM and finance minister has favoured our stand. We submitted how there is a need to go slow and to shift to EPC mode since private players are not putting bids for quite some time,” said a senior ministry official.
Though officials also submitted that the ministry and NHAI are in a position to invite tenders for three expressway projects – Eastern Peripheral Expressway, Delhi-Meerut and Mumbai-Vadodara – they are unsure whether there will be bids on PPP mode.
Meanwhile, department of economic affairs secretary Arvind Mayaram said that the bad patch for private investment in infrastructure will pass. Speaking on sidelines of Indian Roads Congress (IRC) convention, he said private investment will resume in the next six-eight months as economic condition has started improving.
Planning Commission member B K Chaturvedi also admitted that private investment has fallen significantly due to global financial situation. “During our mid-term review we will consider whether there is a need to rework the financing model to increase government funding. Obviously, we now want more projects to be on EPC mode,” he added.
Mohali-Patiala road to be four-laned
November 11, 2013
Vibhor Mohan, TNN |
A large number of regular commuters between Patiala and Chandigarh have begun using the Sirhind-Patiala road link due to relatively lesser traffic and better road. The route is particularly used by those coming to PGI or Panjab University as they get a direct link to these institutes.
A Punjab government official said Punjab Infrastructure Development Board is working on widening of the SAS Nagar – Landhran – Chunni -Sirhind – Patiala road link and request for proposal for preparing the detailed project report has already been invited by the board.
Both the projects would be taken up by raising loans from the World Bank and in public-private partnership. For this, commuters will have to pay at toll plazas to be set up on the basis of surveys conducted by consultants.
The proposed upgradation of the state highway will include construction of bus bays and bus shelters and truck lay byes located near check-barriers, places of conventional stops of the truck operators. Pedestrian and cattle crossing by way of unnderpass/overpass will be provided on the basis of traffic count assessment.
The existing national highway is single lane and prone to accidents as the road is not just narrow, it has no road dividers and railing is missing at most places on narrow bridges on water bodies.
On the Zirakpur-Patiala stretch, toll plaza will be set up at one point between Zirakpur and Rajpura and another between Rajpura and Patiala.
Target for highway projects halved
November 11, 2013
Proposal to cut the target of contracting out 4,028km of highway projects to be placed at a review meeting today
Connectivity of northeast India with Bangladesh to be developed
November 11, 2013
IANS
45-metre-wide national highways for Kerala: Minister
November 8, 2013
TNN
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Works minister V K Ebrahim Kunju on Tuesday said the national highways in the state would be developed in 45 metres only. The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) had informed the government that it would not be able to develop the highways in 30 metres, he said.
“We proposed 30 metres in view of the hurdles in land acquisition. The NHAI said the state would have to take charge of the highways if the width is 30 metres. It is not possible for us to develop the highways and we have informed the ministry that we agree to the 45-metre plan,” he told a news meet.
The minister dismissed the chances of elevated highways, saying they are not feasible. “It can be done only in special cases.”
He said the KSTP phase II and state roads improvement projects were on track. On condition of roads after rain, he said a performance guarantee of three years has been imposed for bituminous macadam and bituminous concrete roads and five years for heavy maintenance roads.
Tariff dodging takes its toll on India’s highway developers
November 8, 2013
BY MATTHIAS WILLIAMS
(Reuters) – Flashing lights on the roof, tailgating politicians’ motorcades, smashing up toll booths, and beating up toll collectors.
Welcome to India’s network of privately run highways, where endemic toll dodging is a drag on the finances of road operators such as GVK Power and Infrastructure and Reliance Infrastructure, and a deterrent to private investment in a country where poor infrastructure shaves an estimated 2 percentage points from economic growth each year.
Ambulances, fire trucks and the cars of senior government officials are among those exempted from paying tolls, but other drivers often claim a free ride, said Isaac George, GVK’s chief financial officer.
“If an MP (member of parliament) has to be exempted, it’s not just his car that is exempted. The entire entourage which follows or goes in front seeks an exemption,” he said. “The government has to do something because these are all revenue leakages.”
India’s cash-strapped government wants private companies to double their share of the cost of building roads and bridges by 2017 from about a fifth in the last five years.
Eight out of every 10 road projects, however, miss revenue expectations in their first year, with the shortfall as high as 45 percent, according to a 2012 study by Fitch Ratings. The slowing economy, and sometimes inflated forecasts, are partly to blame, but toll dodging is a significant factor, said Fitch India analyst S. Nandakumar.
“There is obviously resistance to tolling, particularly for brownfield or greenfield toll roads which have been tolled for the first time,” he said.
THEFT, BEATINGS
The resistance to paying tolls is part of a wider pushback against India’s attempt to charge for services such as electricity that have been heavily subsidised or free, and which are plagued by under-investment.
Drivers use threats, violence, protests and claims of powerful connections to demand toll exemptions. Road developers lose up to a tenth of their toll revenues because of dodgers, said Vishwas Udgirkar, an infrastructure specialist at consultancy Deloitte.
IRB Infrastructure Developers could not levy tolls on one road for nearly two years due to protests in the western state of Maharashtra, where Mumbai is located. Charges began on Oct. 17, after a court ordered the local government to provide police protection.
Last month, security camera footage showed 6 men, armed with rods, assaulting staff and stealing money from a toll booth outside New Delhi. Two years ago, a toll collector was shot dead during a payment dispute at a booth near Gurgaon, where cars are charged 27 rupees (44 cents).
This lawlessness comes at an economic cost.
The government awarded less than a fifth of its target for new road construction contracts to private companies in the last fiscal year, official data shows. GVK and GMR Infrastructure both pulled out of road projects stalled by bureaucracy. In July, local media reported that IRB pulled out of bidding for a harbour crossing in Mumbai because of its toll collection woes in Maharashtra.
In a bid to tackle toll dodging and ease congestion at toll gates, Road Transport Minister C.P. Joshi said he wants all national highways to use electronic tolls by 2014.
A senior government official, however, was less concerned.
“I won’t deny this is an issue,” he said, declining to be named as he did not want to publicly speak about the issue. “We are not concerned about his (a company’s) loss of revenue. He should be concerned about it.”
MAFIAS AND MINIONS
India’s toll roads tend to be better maintained and less congested than public routes. But unlike in Europe, for example, private roads, and not state roads, tend to become the main route between cities, leaving drivers with little choice.
This breeds resentment, especially if the road is pot-holed, unsafe or snarled by mind-numbing traffic.
Raju, who lives in Delhi, used to put a red flashing light on his car to pass himself off as a lawmaker to avoid tolls. He’s now befriended the driver of a genuine politician and often joins his entourage when travelling in northern India.
“They don’t provide facilities, so why should I pay a toll?” said Raju, who declined to give his full name. Highways are often congested, he said, and once, when he had a flat tyre on his way to a funeral, he waited two hours before help arrived.
Waiting for government help, and attitudes to shift, could take years.
K. Ramchand, managing director at road builder IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd, said one way to manage toll dodgers was to let them have their way in the early days of the project.
“Most of the toll deviants are … cars normally owned by either the local mafia, the minister or his cronies,” he said. “It’s safer to keep them on your side and give them a free pass.”
“Otherwise what happens is, these 30-40 followers come on the toll plaza, make a noise and then everybody falls into that mob mentality and then it becomes a big issue,” he added. (Additional reporting by Anindito Mukherjee; Editing by Tony Munroe and Miral Fahmy)
Source-http://www.reuters.com
Queensland firm Global Road Technology Australia has landed a $116 million ($US110M) deal to lay its “instant highway” technology on 7,000 kilometres of road in India.
November 8, 2013
The firm, whose biggest projects to date have included infrastructure linked to resource industry development in Queensland, secured the deal with Indian construction and energy giant Triace this week.
It would see the firm’s road stabilisation technology applied on the ground through a joint venture with Indian firm Pearls Group – to be called Pearls GRT.
GRT director Ben Skinner said the technology was expected to create a road network that would transform regional Maharashtra – India’s third largest state.
“Our partnership with Pearls and the signing of the agreement in India demonstrates the demand for our products and their potential to provide infrastructure solutions globally for any number of industries and applications,” Mr Skinner said.
The technology would allow the construction firm to lay up to 6,000 square metres of road a day compared to traditional methods that could take up to a month per kilometre, he said. That meant rollout time from planning to finished road took a matter of days with GRT technology.
The firm expected to have a team of surveyors, geologists, civil engineers and industry consultants on the ground to assist with the project.
Among the firm’s biggest selling points was the fact that its technology was tested under some of Australia’s harshest conditions – at mining sites where haulage roads must remain open 24 hours a day to boost productivity.
The firm was already working across India, North and South America, he said, in major mining, oil and gas developments, and with government sector.
Source-http://www.couriermail.com.au
Government entices foreign developers to build roads in India ahead of general elections
November 8, 2013
Dailybhaskar.com |
New Delhi: The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MRTH) is to conduct road shows in foreign lands to entice companies abroad to take up road projects in India. The ‘road shows’ are to be conducted primarily in Australia and China over next few months, according to media reports.
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