Good roads make friendly neighbours
November 7, 2013
Global Times |
By Ding Gang
These two accomplishments are enough to make Indians and Chinese feel proud. However, they seem to have caused mutual suspicion instead, and even been misinterpreted by some netizens as measures against each other.
With rapid development in many areas and in particular defense over the last decade and more, China and India have become more suspicious of each other’s intention, which reflects long-term distrust in their bilateral relationship.
Problems in the Sino-Indian relationship are mainly triggered by boundary demarcation. The foremost way to reduce mutual suspicion is to lay down some basic rules in tackling border issues to control frictions and prevent conflicts.
The Border Defense Cooperation Agreement between India and China signed in Beijing last month marked an important step toward this. If New Delhi and Beijing can strictly abide by the pact and conduct frequent dialogues between officials at different levels near the Line of Actual Control, there will be fewer chances of conflicts.
The two nations can then begin considering how to make substantial progress that promotes business and trade in border areas and benefits the general public.
In recent years, Beijing and New Delhi have been engaged in road projects near border regions, and have also made plans to build railways. Mutual suspicion will increase if the highways and railways cannot be connected between the two countries. But if the two can be connected, the entire region can prosper.
Currently, China and India conduct trade mostly by sea. A large bulk of Tibet’s imports from and exports to India has to pass through the port of Tianjin and then be shipped to the harbors of Calcutta.
If the two countries can connect their highways via Nathu La, a mountain pass in the Himalayas, trading cost will drop enormously. Nathu La is located 460 kilometers from Lhasa, and there are several highways from this historical place to northern India, eastern Nepal and northern Bangladesh.
This trade route boasts great potential. The India-China trade volume in 1957 amounted to a peak of 110 million silver dollars at Nathu La Pass, accounting for more than 80 percent of the total bilateral trading volume.
Another route, which extends about 500 kilometers, could connect Tengchong, Yunnan Province, to Ledo in northeastern India via Myitkyina in Myanmar.
Many businessmen from Myanmar have been transporting Chinese goods to India through this passage over recent years, and there are a variety of Chinese-made products in the markets across India-Myanmar border areas.
Interconnections between western China and northeastern India will not only benefit the two countries, but also be conducive to the establishment of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor that is now being discussed. Plus, it can help shape a critical economic circle to provide more vigor and dynamism to Asia and the whole world.
In addition, the political role of the new economic zone can not afford to be neglected. As complicated conflicts often occur among a number of ethnic minorities and tribal groups there, it will be difficult to push forward political reconciliation if economic development remains sluggish.
Economic growth is the foundation of addressing these problems, and providing real benefits for the people will facilitate the process of negotiations over the border. Investment and ideas that advance China-India economic and trade cooperation are far more important than building army posts and deploying artillery and planes.
The author is a senior editor with People’s Daily. He is now stationed in Brazil
GRT bid paves roads to India
November 7, 2013
Jenny Rogers |
Global Road Technology’s soil stabilisation and trench compaction products will be used to build highways in India. Pic: SuppliedBUNDALL-based infrastructure company Global Road Technology has inked a $115 million road-building deal with Indian construction and energy giant Triace.
The three-year contract will enable the company to put its instant highway technology to work on projects covering 7000km of Maharashtra, India’s most populous and third largest state.
The Triace deal followed the recent signing of a joint venture agreement between GRT and India’s Pearls Group to form Pearls GRT.
Pearls Group is the parent company of Pearls Australasia, which bought the Sheraton Mirage resort for $62.5 million in 2009 and undertook a $26 million makeover.
GRT’s technology director Ben Skinner said the deal was a sign of the Gold Coast-based company’s intent to be a world leader in road infrastructure development.
“Our technology provides a cost-effective and time-efficient solution to the development of road infrastructure in both remote and developing nations,” he said.
He said up to 6000sq m of road would be applied a day using GRT’s products, as opposed to traditional methods that take up to a month to lay a kilometre of road.
GRT uses special compounds to build roads that are stronger, safer, cheaper, longer-lasting and quicker to install than conventional roads.
Their technology makes it possible to quickly seal poor roads in countries such as India and China to reduce fatalities.
GRT already has a presence across Asia, India and South America.
The company is working with major companies across the mining, oil and gas and government sector.
Mr Skinner said GRT polymers could be mixed with in-situ materials to create a range of road surfaces across a variety of landscapes.
Source-http://www.goldcoast.com.au
CPI seminar for more safety measures on highways
November 5, 2013
By Express News Service – HYDERABAD
-
CPI state secretary K Narayana (right) speaking at an all-party meeting on ‘Road accidents and private bus operators’ negligence’ at the party office, Mqdoom Bhavan, in Hyderabad on Sunday | A RADHAKRISHNA
Pointing out that blaming drivers for all the accidents will not help in finding actual reasons of accidents, Y Venkateswara Rao, state secretariat member, CPI (M) said, “It will not help in-depth analysis of the problem”. He suggested that the APSRTC should run its bus services in areas where there are good chances of generating income.
Family members of the victims who got burnt in the bus accident demanded that bodies of the victims should be handed over to them as soon as possible. “We immediately reached the accident spot and received the body of my brother Akshay Singh. But when we reached Jadcherla, we got a call from the police that the body should be taken to Osmania hospital. Till now we did not get back the body,” lamented Ashish, brother of Akshay Singh, a software engineer who lost his life in the bus accident.
K Narayana also suggested that apart from the bus operators, government should also provide compensation to victims of bus accidents and that in buses which travel long distances, drivers should not drive for more than four hours and that a traffic police van should regularly patrol highways.
Source-http://newindianexpress.com
Jamtha-Gondkhairi link of Outer Ring Road ready
November 1, 2013
Ashish Roy, TNN |
The Gondkhairi-Jamtha stretch of ORR is toll free. Vehicles will have to pay toll once they enter the Jamtha-Kamptee Road stretch. The former stretch has been constructed by public works department (PWD) and will be maintained by Oriental Nagpur Bypass Construction Pvt Ltd ( ONBCL).
Work on the RoB had begun on January 20, 2009, and was to be completed by July 2010. However, due to various reasons, including difficulty in getting various permissions from railways, it was delayed by over three years. Kamptee-Kanhan bypass and the 21km ORR stretch from Bhandara Road to Wardha Road was thrown open to traffic in July 2012.
Ironically, the 17km ORR stretch from Gondkhairi to west side of Nagpur-Wardha railway line was completed in 2009, right on time. However, another 5km needed to be constructed to reach Wardha Road.
The approach roads to the RoB were completed but only the bridge was held up. The ramps were finished in January this year. The span over the railway line was to be done by Central Railways and it took its own time. The RoB would have been ready a month earlier had the PWD contractor started tarring on time.
CCEA approves Rs. 3,000-crore road widening projects in Maharashtra, Punjab
November 1, 2013
Press Trust of India |
“CCEA approved four laning of the Aurangabad-Yedeshi section of National Highway-211 in Maharashtra under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase IV on Build, Operate and Transfer basis,” an official statement said.
The estimated cost, of the 190 km, project is Rs. 2,406.63 crore including the cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other pre-construction activities, the statement said.
The proposed highway between Sangrur (Punjab) and Haryana border is estimated at Rs. 612.28 crore including the cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other pre-construction activities.
The total length of the road will be approximately 57 km. The project is covered in Sangrur and Patiala Districts of Punjab. The main townships on the project Highway are Sangrur,Patran and Khanauri.
These two projects will also increase employment potential for local labourers.
World Bank Group : $160 Million Financing for Rajasthan Road Sector Modernization Project, India –2500 km of Rural Roads to be constructed, 1300 villages to be connected
October 31, 2013
WASHINGTON, October 29, 2013 – The World Bank today approved a $160 million credit for the Rajasthan Road Sector Modernization Project to support the government of Rajasthan improve rural connectivity, enhance road safety and strengthen the road sector management capacity of the state.
In recent years Rajasthan has made considerable progress with developing its rural roads under the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) – a flagship program of the government of India. More than 80% of its habitations, with population of over 500, now have road connectivity. However, some 7,357 villages in the state, with population below 500, do not have road connectivity as they are not covered under the PMGSY.
The Rajasthan Road Sector Modernization Projectapproved today will construct 2500 km of rural roads, connect around 1300 villages that are currently not covered under the PMGSY and also undertake preparatory studies for improving 700 km of priority sections of the state highways. The roads will be built to a bitumen surface standard and will include all necessary bridges and cross drainage works in order to maintain year-round connectivity.
The key components of the project include improving rural connectivity through construction of roads; supporting the government of Rajasthan’s Road Sector Modernization Plan (RSMP) by strengthening institutions, enhancing accountability and introducing new technologies to promote cost effective road construction; and strengthening road safety management systems.
“The Country Partnership Strategy for the World Bank in India is committed to working towards fostering inclusive growth in low-income states like Rajasthan. This project will build on our long engagement in the road sector in India by connecting small and remote habitations in the state to the mainstream. This will help improve access to markets, healthcare and education while creating new jobs and boosting agriculture,” said Onno Ruhl, World Bank Country Director for India. “An important aspect of the project will be on strengthening road safety in order to bring down the number of fatalities and serious injuries from traffic accidents in the state,” he added.
Recognizing that road safety is a critical issue in the country today, the project will support the strengthening of road safety management systems with the objective of reducing fatalities and serious injuries from road accidents in the state. It will include a 100 km safe corridor demonstration project which will focus on measures to improve the safety of pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers, passengers and motorized two-wheelers. The safe corridor will benefit from a multi-sectoral approach with better engineering, enforcement, health care and community awareness.
“The project will support the on-going roads modernization agenda of the Public Works Department (PWD) through improved asset management, financial sustainability and road user focus. The project will also demonstrate best practice in road design and construction, traffic management to improve road safety and environmental protection measures,” saidMesfin Wodajo Jijo, senior transport specialist and the project’s task team leader.
The gradual transformation of the PWD will not only help enhance the quality and effectiveness of its delivery but also sustain the assets created under these programs.
The Project will be financed by a credit from the International Development Association (IDA) – the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm – which provides interest-free loans with 25 years to maturity and a grace period of five years.
Outer ring road to be developed in Kottayam
October 31, 2013
TNN
According to PWD, the work includes the modification of the MG Road (1km), ML Junction-Muttambalam Road (2.5km) and Kanjikuzhy-Power House Junction Road (7km).
The work includes tarring by ensuring a minimum width of 5.5m in the latter two stretches and 15m on MG road. The road will be also raised in those portions affected by water logging, said Santhosh, assistant executive engineer.
The outer bypass will start from Power House Junction-Pakkil-Kaduvakkulam-Nalkkavala-Kollad-Bata Junction-Muttambalam Railway Cross-Erayilkadavu-Chanthakadavu and finally join MG Road.
The package also involves making minor changes in the junctions which come along the stretch for facilitating easy flow of traffic. These Junctions include Pakkil, Kaduvakkulam, Nalkkavala, Kollad and Bata Junction.
“The work of the MG Road has already started. We are hoping to finish the work of this stretch in January,” said Santhosh.
The 1 km stretch of MG Road which was in a bad condition for over two years will be renovated after raising the height of the road. “The entire stretch will be renovated based on KSTP standards,” said the engineer.
However, the work does not include the construction of footpaths. “This work will be included in the next phase,” said Santhosh.
The new vegetable market, fish market, proposed slaughterhouse, KSEB substation and the proposed new municipal office complex are located on the sides of this 1 km stretch.
The ML Road will also be renovated this financial year, said municipal chairman Santhosh Kumar. He also said that the traffic block at the Mark Junction will be reduced once the road is renovated. Once the road is renovated, the roadside vendors will be evacuated, he added.
Road developers welcome move on IIFCL
October 29, 2013
MAMUNI DAS
Road developers welcomed the Finance Ministry’s move to permit India Infrastructure Finance Corporation Ltd (IIFCL) to become the sole lender even at a pre-bid stage, but said the exact impact will be known only after the finer details emerge.
“The very fact that IIFCL can become the sole lender is a good decision. One of the key points is the project developer would not have to go to multiple banks. Right now, for projects valued at Rs 3,000 crore or so, project developers have to go to 12-15 banks as there are exposure limits of Rs 200-250 crore for each firm, except if you go through State Bank of India,” K. Ramchand, IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd, told Business Line.
“IIFCL becoming involved at a pre-bid level is good. If it gets involved with the project sponsor, such as NHAI for road projects and Port Trusts for port projects, then there will be a layer of banker’s assessment of a project, even before the project goes out for bid. This is likely to solve the current problem of gaps between bankers’ assessment of a project and NHAI’s assessment,” said an NHAI official.
“When can IIFCL become a sole lender? If it can become a sole lender, anytime after the early stage, while this is good for developers, the fear would still be that IIFCL may be stuck with relatively bad projects,” Virendra Mhaiskar, Chairman and Managing Director, IRB Infrastructure Developers, told Business Line.
K.C. Chakrabarty, RBI Deputy Governor, in a paper had said “I would rather wish that entities such as infrastructure debt funds, IIFCL, which are set up to provide take-out financing, should assume initial credit risk in such projects and then sell the same to banks.”
In the context of long gestation projects, financiers of infrastructure projects need to pay a lot of attention to the project at the nascent stage. Having assumed the risk till projects come on stream and start generating revenue, it was natural for a bank to be unwilling to trade a good credit risk to fund another greenfield project, he said in the paper.
0 km: 60 km along Indo-China border
October 28, 2013
By Pradeep Kumar (ANI)
Itanagar, Oct.26 (ANI): ‘The headline should look like the eyes of a damsel to attract readers’, was a lesson for the mass communication students insofar as reporting is concerned.
I wonder if this headline would stir the readers’ psyche?
A visit to Bumla in Tawang district along the India-China border on October 20, was shockingly disgusting.
Maruti Gypsy and Mahindra’s Scorpio, both sturdy vehicles on hilly roads, found it difficult to negotiate the 45-km road from Tawang to the last border outpost that took almost two hours.
Few patches were only boulders without any sign of road. Travelling along the steep road was a uphill task, well neigh impossible to maneuver that forced the drivers to travel at almost 0 km speed.
This prompted a top ranking IPS officer to comment that the road condition is as it was a decade ago when I visited.
Chief Minister Nabam Tuki assured to take up with the defence ministry for improving the border roads maintained by the BRO for the security of the nation.
This was the status of border road almost 19 months after Defence Minister A K Antony at Itanagar on 20th February 2012 had said that: “By and large, the border is peaceful, and at the same time, India is taking care of strengthening the capabilities to protect our national interest from any kind of challenges from any quarters. The eastern border is safe and we will make it safer, (and) for that, whatever is needed to strengthen our security apparatus, we are taking care of it continuously in a systematic manner.”
“India is strengthening its security capabilities in the eastern border. Along with that, we are also taking care of the socio-economic development of the border areas. I want to make it amply clear that our security forces are capable of protecting our national interests,” said Antony without mincing any words.
What an irony? For, on arrival at the Bumla Pass, it was learnt that Land Cruisers used by the People’s Liberation Army travel at 60 km speed to reach the black topped road on the other side of the border.
Undoubtedly, Lok Sabha member Ninong Ering had told the floor of the house on April 20 last that the 1962 situation (When India had suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of China) still prevailed along the Indo-China border. India and China shares about 3,500 km border, 1,080 km in Arunachal Pradesh alone.
The union rural development ministry has approved a network of roads and bridges to improve connectivity in Arunachal Pradesh, a decision that comes just ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Beijing and underscores the strategic importance of the bordering state over parts of which China lays claim.
The pre-empowered committee of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, the Centre’s rural roads programme, has cleared construction of 57 roads and 58 long-span bridges covering 842 km. Of these, 21 roads and 46 bridges are in areas along the India-China border. The projects will cost Rs 819 crore and connect 170 habitations in the state. State agencies and National Building Construction Corporation, a central public sector company, will construct these roads and bridges.
Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh’s push for strengthening connectivity in international border areas has led to speedy clearances since January for construction of 95 roads and 31 long-span bridges in the state, covering a length of 1,190 km at a cost of Rs 894 crore. The government has approved construction of roads connecting 126 clusters of habitations, each of which have population of less than 250.
The Bumla outpost records upto 15 feet deep snowfall and temperature goes down below -23 degree but the jawans continue to guard the border.
When would good sense prevail upon the New Delhi mandarins is a million dollar question!
Source-http://www.newstrackindia.com
Surat-Nashik road connectivity on the cards
October 28, 2013
Tushar Pawar, TNN
NASHIK: Road connectivity between Surat and Nashik is set to improve, with the Gujarat government taking up paving work of the Surat-Nashik Road, Gujarat principal secretary S S Rathore said in Nashik on Saturday.
Rathore, principal secretary, department of roads & buildings of the Gujarat government, was attending a engineers’ award presentation at the Nashik centre of The Institution of Engineers (India) on Saturday. “We are focusing on improving connectivity between Gujarat and Maharashtra, from Surat to Saputra, which is the border of Gujrat adjacent to Nashik district. We have already handed over a road to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for widening. Around 98 per cent work has already been completed, while the rest of the stretch before Saputara is to be developed shortly,” Rathore said at the programme.
Rathore said, “We are planning to develop 18,000 km of roads across the state of Gujarat over the next few years. We have improved connectivity between districts. We have also improved road connectivity in 98 per cent of villages. We have decided to resurface roads that are over seven years old.”
S Subrahmanyan, managing director of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) said, “There are several technological challenges and engineers must focus on finding solutions over these. They must be innovative to bring quality and competitiveness.”
Sanjay Khandare, Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) commissioner also attended the event.
Various engineering awards instituted by the Nashik local centre of The Institution of Engineers (India) were presented at the event to Anil Lodha, Nayana S Rao, Rajesh Atmaram Patil, Chandrashekhar N Kulkarni, Rajan Bhagawat, professor Prakash Kadave, Naresh Sahare, Vikas Agrawal, Ghanashyam Patil, Atul Jadhav, Sopan Talekar, Shrikant Agarkar, Smita Paithankar, Manisha Suryavanshi and Priyanka Shirude.
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