Chidambaram met World Bank president Jim Yong Kim yesterday (Saturday) morning on  the sidelines of the annual Spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The 640-km project-part of the 920 km Rewari-Vadodara stretch-is awaiting approval from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is funding the project, to begin financial bidding.

It will be the second project along the 3,322-km Dedicated Freight Corridor to be put on the block. In January, the government had awarded the first project-343-km of the 1,839-km Eastern Corridor-to Tata-Aldesa JV. Preparatory work on this Rs 3,300 crore Kanpur-Khurja section is likely to be completed by June.

The Dedicated Freight Corridor project, being implemented by the railways through theDedicated Freight Corridor Corp of India Ltd ( DFCCIL), aims to connect the important freight lanes between Delhi and Mumbai in the west and Ludhiana and Dankuni in the east.

The 640-km project on the Western Corridor is likely to go to either the consortium between Japan’s Sojitz Corp and Larsen & Toubro or Mitsui, Ircon and Leighton.

The government plans to invite bids for about 1,500 km of freight corridor lines by the end of this fiscal, most of which will be in the western corridor. “Of the 1,500 km, 950-1,000 km will be from the western corridor while 400 km will be from the eastern corridor,” DFCCIL’s MD, RK Gupta, told ET.

According to officials, these projects are likely to cost about 10 crore per km and can help reduce CO2 emission by 450 million tonne over the next 30 years. About 90% of the land required for the stretches has already been acquired by DFFCIL. “The remaining portions are in difficult places or require alignment changes. We should be able to complete this in six months,” Gupta said.

NEW DELHI: The North Delhi Municipal Corporation has missed the March 31 deadline of making the parking at Chandni Chowk Parade Ground operational.

The deadline was set by the Delhi High Court. The north body has been able to open only two levels of the underground parking. The parking has four levels, one on the ground and three underground. Only the ground and the upper basement level have been made operational so far.

The civic body officials said some “last-minute work” is being done on the other floors.

Traders of Chandni Chowk have complained to municipal commissioner PK Gupta about the delay. “We would request you to kindly look into the issue and ensure that the parking be made fully operational as per the undertaking given to the Delhi High Court,” wrote the Chandni Chowk Sarv Vypar Mandal.

According to the traders’ body president Sanjay Bhargava, the absence of parking is increasing the pressure on the already congested market, which does not have enough space.

“During weekends when the number of visitors increases, it becomes very difficult to commute in Chandni Chowk as people park cars on the roadside, choking up the carriageway,” he said.

Traders also complain that the nearby Gandhi Ground parking is also in a bad shape and needs renovation.

“The parking is open for the public and people are using it. It is only a matter some time before the entire structure is operational,” said leader of the House Mahender Nagpal.

The unified MCD in February 2012 had inaugurated the 1,020car capacity underground multilevel parking lot in a hurry even before the structure had been completed.

The underground parking will cater to more than 720 cars, while the surface parking area will be utilised for parking of 300 cars.

The parking has been constructed at a cost of R52 crore.

http://paper.hindustantimes.com

The North municipal body has decided to inaugurate its first automated multi-level parking at Kamla Nagar on April 20. A week later, the conventional multi-level parking at Model Town will be inaugurated.

Incidentally, both the projects work would be declared open to the public in the year which is set to witness assembly elections in the city. Both the BJP-ruled civic bodies and the Congress-ruled state government have been in an overdrive to woo voters.

“The Kamla Nagar parking is complete and so is the Model Town parking. Once they are opened, the visitors in these areas will find enough space to park their cars,” said a senior official. The corporation has at least seven parking projects, on which work was on for the past five years.

A host of inauguration functions would be held to woo voters since the assembly elections are scheduled later this year. The civic body has completed the tender process for parkings at Rani Bagh and Ashok Vihar and the projects may be announced to get political mileage.

The Kamla Nagar automated multi-level parking was announced in 2007 and the Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna laid the foundation stone.

The parking project is spread over 3,200 square metres and has seven levels that will accommodate 834 cars and 300 scooters.

Once completed, the project will provide a much-needed breather to the Kamla Nagar market, which currently witnesses congestion as visitors leave their vehicles on the roadside.

“When the project is inaugurated on April 20, it will be thrown open for the public for trial. Parking charges will be imposed only when we are satisfied that the system is properly working,” said leader of the House Mahender Nagpal.

The municipal body may also have to face disappointment as the other two automated multi-level parking in the city are not very popular with the commuters.

Built by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), the Baba Kharak Singh Marg and the Sarojini Nagar parkings are still being under-utilised.

North Corporation is not the only municipal body that is trying to complete its projects before the assembly elections. South Corporation last week announced that work orders for parking projects at Defence Colony, Munirka and Subhash Nagar have been given.

Source-http://paper.hindustantimes.com

The result: the project — which was scheduled to be operational by March this year — has missed the deadline yet again.

During the annual press conference of Delhi Police in January this year, the traffic police had promised that e-challans would become partially operational in January and fully by March.

In January, the traffic police had initiated a trial by introducing some of the devices in Parliament Street area of Central Delhi. However, the gadgets developed a technical snag. Sources said the hand-held device, which was used to issue challans, encountered a problem while working in the sunlight.

According to sources, the vendor Airtel is not ready with 1200 e-challan devices and has sought more time for supplying the gadgets.

“We do not know when the project would successfully be implemented,” said Anil Shukla, additional commissioner of police (traffic).

‘’After the successful deployment of the pilot, we are determined to take all steps towards its successful implementation,’’ said a spokesperson of Airtel.

After running into several delays, the e-challan system had got the final nod of the state government in November. Following this, the traffic police were keen to formally launch the project by making 100 gadgets operational during the special drive against drunk driving on the eve of New Year in Central Delhi.

But the plan never materialised as the vendor was not ready with the devices.

As per the tender agreement, Airtel was to provide 1200 e-challan instruments to cover the entire city by March and also provide technical support for operating the instruments. With e-challan — an electronic format of the challan – becoming functional, there will be a record of all traffic violations against errant drivers and vehicles. This, the traffic police claims, will help initiate a new regime of better enforcement by having higher penalties for second and subsequent prosecutions and ensure point system for supervision and cancellation of driving licences.

Source : http://paper.hindustantimes.com/