Chandigarh to be ‘rebuilt’ as smart city, minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju says
September 10, 2014
On his maiden visit to the city as a minister, he said that he held meetings with the officers of the local administration and discussed the issues of development of the city.
“Whole of Chandigarh will be fresh (developed as new) … it will re-built … the MHA under which Chandigarh comes will ensure that it comes up as a smart city,” he said.
The minister, who also attended the passing out parade of ITBP near here, said the Centre is prepared for all possible help for development of Chandigarh.
Rijiju, who also inaugurated the solar power plant and newly built auditorium in the PG government college for girls at Sector 42 here, said that Chandigarh being an ideal city, it is appropriate that the college has gone in for solar energy which would be the energy of the future.
The minister said that the state of the act auditorium would help in honing and developing the skills of students in the extra-curricular activities, which are as important as studies.
He refused to comment on controversy created over recent remarks by Union minister Arun Jaitley on rape and its affect on tourism. “I won’t comment on it,” he said.
On the issue of special privileges, including passes to visit restricted areas and free air travel reportedly sought by BJP MP’s for their personal secretaries, the minister said that “we take review of excesses of ministers and officers and then decide upon it.”
“I can’t comment upon it (privileges) … I will discuss with the BJP and come back with a reply,” he added.
Meanwhile, Kirron Kher, Lok Sabha MP from Chandigarh, said that she would make all effort to make Chandigarh the first smart city in the country.
She expressed her happiness to be involved in the development of the city.
The new auditorium has a seating capacity of 600 and was built at a cost of Rs 5 crore in three years.
Meeting of state ministers called to push smart cities vision
September 10, 2014
NEW DELHI: In its bid to finalise the roadmap for NDA’s flagship scheme “100 smart cities” the Centre has called a meeting of state urban development ministers on September 12 for consultation.
Union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu said on Thursday that he has written to the states to participate in the meeting since state governments have to play a big role in this pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Claiming that the planning for this massive programme is in advanced stage of finalisation, Naidu said, “Foreign governments have also sent notes on this expressing interest. We are studying them and will come out with a policy soon,” he said.
On Wednesday, the secretary to the urban development ministry Shankar Aggarwal had said that the process for finalising the framework for smart cities is a huge exercise and all possible pitfalls, effects and other factors are being considered before announcement of the policy. He had also said that private sector will have huge opportunities to put these projects in place.
He had also said that builders and developers for the smart cities would be adequately incentivised. As a part of the plan, while a few new cities would be developed as “smart” ones the prime focus is on improving infrastructure and living conditions in existing cities.
Singapore to help India in smart cities project
September 10, 2014
SINGAPORE: Having allocated over Rs 7,000 crore in its recent budget for development of 100 ‘smart cities’, India today roped in Singapore for providing its expertise in this even as the two countries decided to step up economic engagement besides defence and security cooperation.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj concluded a hectic 24-hour visit here with an understanding with this city-state to identify concrete projects in skills development and rejuvenation of Indian cities which would include ‘smart cities’.
The concept of ‘smart cities’ as satellite towns of larger ones was enunciated in last month’s budget by the new NDA government which has allocated a sum of Rs 7,060 crore for the ambitious plan.
“Singapore’s expertise in smart cities, urban planning and water management strategies offer a valuable learning experience for India. We shall work for setting up greenfield smart cities and for urban rejuvenation. Our experts shall identify the priorities and we shall coordinate its timely delivery,” Swaraj said before leaving for New Delhi
Source:Economic Times
Akhilesh Yadav counters PM Narendra Modi’s smart cities with digital villages
September 10, 2014
LUCKNOW: The ruling SP may have been routed in the LS polls by the Narendra Modi juggernaut but CM Akhilesh Yadav is gearing up to counter the PM’s governance agenda with people-centric initiatives.
If Modi has been talking about ‘Smart Cities’, Yadav has quietly put together the framework for a massive ‘Digital Villages’ project, which aims to provide a host of services to the rural population, speedily and at their doorstep.
The Smart Villages project envisages linking up of 16,000 fully computerised Jan Suvidha Kendras (JSKs) in villages across the state to central data centres holding digitised government records so that any document or certificate needed by the villagers can be accessed and provided to them “over the counter” without any delay.
These documents relate to land records (khasra-khatauni), caste certificates, taxes, domicile, income certificates, death and birth certificates, etc. As part of this initiative, 53 such documents or certificates will be made available to villagers over the counter at the JSKs.
Most of the work that a common man has with the government relates to either land records or caste certificates and other such documents, said Naveen Kumar GS, special secretary, IT. “They have to travel to the district headquarter or the block office which involves much time, cost and endless delays which hurt poor villagers. Normally a person would have to travel for 15 days before getting the documents in his hands,” he said, adding, “We have initiated the JSKs with the aim of making these services available in the village itself. One JSK has been set up for every six villages in the state. So a villager can find a JSK a short walk away – 16,000 JSKs are already up and running.”
Develop Madurai as ‘smart’ city: MP
July 29, 2014
Madurai city, known as ‘Temple City,’ deserves to be modernised and developed into a ‘smart’ city. The Centre, which is planning to develop 100 cities into ‘smart’ cities, should include Madurai in this project, according to Madurai MP R. Gopalakrishnan.
In a release issued here recently, he said Madurai city, which had a mix of urban and rural areas, was considered as the gateway to the southern districts.
The city should be provided with modern infrastructure like metro rail, helicopter tourism facility, increased rail services with modern coaches among others.
To decongest roads, the Outer Ring Road work should be expedited on a war footing, he noted.
At a time when agriculture had been affected due to poor monsoon, there had been unemployment and large-scale migration of farm workers to Madurai.
The Union government had earmarked Rs.7,060 crore for developing 100 ‘smart’ cities in the current budget.
If Madurai was included in the list, the unemployed workers could benefit from job opportunities that might be created in the future, he suggested.
Welcoming the allocation of Rs.100 crore towards transforming select employment offices into career centres, he urged the Centre to include Madurai employment office in the project on a pilot basis.
“Amma Unavagam” scheme implemented in Tamil Nadu was a success, and the Centre should take it across the country as it would benefit a large number of people.
When contacted, Mr. Gopalakrishnan said he had given his submission in writing in the current session of Parliament under Rule 377 of the Lok Sabha.
Source:The Hindu
MAIT launches e-portal for small, medium enterprises
July 28, 2014
MAIT, the apex body representing India’s IT hardware, training and R&D services sectors, announced the launch of its e-portal catering specifically to small and medium enterprises.
The first of its kind, the portal called MAIT SME chapter is a major initiative for all SMEs in the ICT sector and is in line with the Government’s push to encourage manufacturing of IT and electronics production.
“This a portal that will provide everything that SMEs require in one place. There are 30 million MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) units that employ 60 million people, contributing to 45 per cent of industrial output, 40 per cent to export, producing over 8,000 products and creating 1.3 million jobs per annum. This portal will address all their requirements,” Rahul Gupta, Chairman, SME Chapter, MAIT, told Business Line.
Dedicated page
Each of the SMEs will have a dedicated page to themselves that will showcase their products, technologies, capabilities, team and strengths. All the policy announcements, including several schemes for SMEs and MSMEs will be available on the portal.
Government tenders will also be announced on the portal that will enable SMEs to apply and participate. A separate section on jobs will also be made available.
“Unlike large enterprises, SMEs do not have the monetary might to hold job fairs. In such a situation, the job section on the portal is the perfect solution to the problem. Additionally, all national and international events will be announced on the portal, such as the first-ever CeBIT fair in India this November. MAIT will provide discounted booths to SMEs at its pavilion in the CeBIT fair,” said Gupta.
Conclave
MAIT, in association with the DeitY and Ministry of MSME, recently organised its first ‘MAIT ICT SME Conclave 2014 in Bangalore. Anwar Shirpurwala, Executive Director MAIT said: “The SME portal and the Conclave is an endeavour to reach out to SMEs in the IT sector from across the country, to provide them a single platform to address their requirements and give them an opportunity to update their knowledge about various government schemes, business opportunities, latest technologies and investment opportunities available in India and abroad.”
Source:The Hindu
Nitin Gadkari: No tenders for roads without 80% land in place
July 25, 2014
Summary:Around 300 projects to be up for bids in 5-10 years.The government will not bid out any highway project without acquiring at least 80 per cent land for it. Around 300 road projects are to be bid out within the next 5-10 years after securing all necessary regulatory clearances, the country’s road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday.
Addressing a public-private partnership summit organised by Ficci, Gadkari said the government has decided not to float any tender without acquiring adequate amount of land for executing a project. To fast-track tendering and execution of projects, Gadkari said officials of concerned ministries need to be more responsive and work at a brisk pace.
“Time is the most important thing in infrastructure and business and delays cost the country to the tune of Rs 15 crore a day. Files are kept pending for months. I have asked highways officials to fast-track decisions and requested the Prime Minister to issue directions to all officials,” he said. The minister said he would be holding a meeting every month as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s direction to ensure timely clearances.
Gadkari asked the developers to refrain from aggressive bidding for projects as had happened in the past when companies shouldered projects without due clearances and those projects failed to take off despite financial closures.
Sharing the dais with Gadkari, finance secretary Arvind Mayaram said the government is working on a sophisticated and flexible framework for the public-private partnership model to boost infrastructure development.
The flexibility is imperative to factor in changes in the circumstances that run over a period of 25-30 years, he contended. Mayaram reminded that the private sector has to share the risk associated with PPP projects, as the government alone cannot bear the entire responsibility.
“There is a need to see whether we can look at developing a framework which is going to decide what stress is, who is responsible for stress, what is causing the stress and how we deal with them?,” he said.
The proposed 3P India institution will look at issues relating to regulation, financing structures, stress in project, management of contract over a period of time and also issues relating to capacity building both in public and private sector, Mayaram said. “It will be a unique and powerful institution which will rejuvenate the entire universe of PPP which seems to be slowing down at the moment,” he added.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley, in his Budget speech, had proposed setting up of an institution to provide support to mainstream PPPs called 3P India with a corpus of Rs 500 crore.
Source:The Indian express
Stuck Rs 1.8lakh crore road projects to be launched by Aug15: Nitin Gadkari
July 16, 2014
Stalled highways projects worth Rs 1,80,000 crore will be rolled out in a month’s span after ironing out hurdles like delays in land acquisition and green nods, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said.
Blaming the previous regime for award of projects “without acquiring even 10 per cent of the required land” and causing hardships for road sector, Gadkari also announced that steps were on to launch new projects worth 2 lakh crore soon.
“As many as 189 projects with a cost of Rs 1,80,000 crore are stuck due to problems in land acquisition, delays in forest and environment clearances, non-transfer of defence land and hurdles in rail overbridges… hurdles will be removed by August 15 and work will start on these,” Gadkari said addressing a summit on Highways by PHD Chamber.
In a significant shift of policy, he also said that public private partnership (PPP) model was not feasible at present for award of road projects due to a host of issues “created by the previous government” and that schemes will be bid out on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode.
“Projects were bid out by previous government without even 10 per cent of the required land acquisition. Work could not start on the project where financial closure took place two years back. Banks withdrew financial closure…PPP mode is not possible now. We will work on EPC model for a few years,” he said.
Unlike PPP model where the private sector has to fund the road building, in the EPC model, the Government funds a highway, with private firms designing and building the road.
Gadkari said, “DPR (detailed project report) will be ready soon for projects worth Rs 2 lakh crore after which steps would be taken for forest and environment clearance and land acquisiton…after two years roads and port sector will help India’s GDP to grow at least by 2 per cent.”
Eleven projects under PPP by previous regime which are stuck for two years will be rolled under EPC, Gadkari said A Committee for such projects has been constituted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi under his chairmanship to fast track the road projects, he said.
Road sector alone accounts for Rs 2,40,000 crore NPAs by banks besides Rs 3,60,000 crore NPAs by power sector, he said adding he would soon be holding meetings with bank officials in this regard. After clearing the backlog, Road Ministry will aspire to build 30 km of roads a day, he said. He said work was on projects worth Rs 21,000 crore in Jammu & Kashmir and Rs 15,000 crore in the North East while hurdles for Rs 40,000 crore worth of projects were removed recently.
Gadkari said financing of road projects may not be a problem as the government is
willing to allow foreign investors to buy stake in a Corporation formed by Road Ministry. “We are holding talks with some nations and have offered 26 per cent stake in the Corporation in lieu of funds to the tune of Rs one lakh crore,” Gadkari said.
Also he said that an ambitious plan to lay gas, optical fibre and power transmission lines along the one lakh km national highways was planned to generate revenue for the government. Gadkari said public amenties are proposed to be constructed every 50 Km on National Highways and 2000 such facilities will be constructed housing malls, restuarants etc.
To make toll collection process at the national highways easier and more transparent, he said the government will roll out RFID-based electronic toll collection across at least 350 toll plazas in three months.
“For this, a RFID chip-embedded sticker will be put on the vehicles and money will automatically get deducted at the toll plazas, through which the vehicles will pass through,”he said adding the department has inked a pact with ICICI bank in this regard.
Solar panels would also be fitted on these toll plazas. Besides, trees would be planted across NH lengths and all these steps are expected to result in employment to about 10 lakh youth. Gadkari also said that concrete roads which last longer than bitument and were cost-friendly will be built. He said use of ethanol will be promoted in a bid to cuton huge Rs 6 lakh crore import bills on petroleum, gas and crude.
Also a new Bill for Motor Vehicle Act was in the making in consultation with the prevailing laws in six advanced nations – UK, US, Canada, Brazil, Japan and Singapore, Gadkari said. On ports and waterways sector, he said inland navigation is proposed to be started soon on Ganga river stretch besides building airport like terminals on its banks.
Dredging will be done at 12 major ports to increase the 12 metre draft to 18 metres besides creation of dry ports for such states without sea.
Source:The Hindu
Government open to buying equity in highway projects, puts PPPs on hold
July 16, 2014
The NDA government has also decided to put all public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the road sector on hold for two to three years as just a few infrastructure firms have any capacity to invest in new projects.
Most developers are either restructuring their debts or are saddled with projects that have turned into non-performing assets.
“Today, the country has just 4-5 developers who are not in CDR (corporate debt restructuring) or in NPA lists. For the rest, band baaja baj gaya hai, aisi haalat hai (they are in a shambles)… So the PPP model is not possible at all,” said highways, road transport and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari, Instead, the focus would be on new highway building through EPC, or engineering, procurement and construction, contracts for which the government foots the bill.
“Most players want to pay a 1 per cent fine to abandon their projects and run away. I have told them, I will levy a 10 per cent penalty and blacklist
The four big reasons that projects are stuck, the minister said, were land acquisition, forest and environmental clearances, defence land tracts on highway alignments and delays in clearances for rail overbridges from the railways.
The road ministry is also creating a shelf of road projects worth Rs 2-3 lakh crore for which it would initiate work on obtaining green clearances and land along with detailed project reports,so that they can bid out as the sector revives.
Union Budget 2014: Govt hits the road with 8,500-km target
July 11, 2014
TNN |
The budget stepped up focus on the highways and expressways with an eye to improve the supply chain as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley set aside Rs 37,880 crore for the road transport sector. The minister also said NHAI shall set aside Rs 500 crore for project preparation.”The sector (roads) had taken shape from 1998-2004 under NDA-I. The sector again needs huge amount of investment along with de-bottlenecking from maze of clearances,” Jaitley said. The proposed investment in NHAI and state roads also includes Rs 3,000 crore for the northeast.Jaitley set a target of 8,500 km of highway construction during this financial year. He said work would begin on select expressways along with development of industrial corridors.
The allocation under the plan head is about 21% higher than what road transport ministry and all other agencies including NHAI could spend in 2013-14. The step is expected to speed up construction and award of road projects through government funding.
In the last two financial years, the sector went through a bad patch as private sector investment declined significantly and over 20 projects failed to get bids.
Road transport minister Nitin Gadkari said his ministry will move a proposal to be able to clear projects up to Rs 1,000 crore against the present limit of Rs 500 crore.
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