Haryana’s plan to partner with UT administration in the ambitious Metro rail project is likely to be decided in a meeting of the project’s coordination committee in New Delhi on Monday.
UT administration, Punjab, Haryana and the union ministry of urban development (MUD) will take part in the meeting to discuss the project that is expected to cost Rs. 10,900 crore. The Metro, once completed, will cover a distance of 35.75 kilometers and be a mode of rapid public transport for Chandigarh, Panchkula and SAS Nagar. The government of Punjab and Haryana and UT administration will jointly bear the expenses of the project.

Haryana has expressed its intention of becoming a partner with Chandigarh in the project. Punjab government would just bear the cost of the project falling in its jurisdiction. The Punjab cabinet has already approved the link between SAS Nagar and Chandigarh. Chandigarh plans to take a loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency, which also gave the loan for the Delhi Metro project.

Last year, the administration had submitted a detailed project report to the MUD for approval, which is still pending. The ministry is likely to give a nod after deliberation on all issues related to the project.

While corridor 1 of the project, measuring 12.49 km, will stretch from Capitol Complex in Sector 1 of Chandigarh to Gurdwara Singh Shaheedan in Sector 70 of SAS Nagar, the second corridor would stretch from Mullanpur in SAS Nagar district to Grain Market in Sector 20 of Panchkula. UT adviser KK Sharma and UT finance secretary VK Singh will represent Chandigarh in the meeting.

Source -http://www.hindustantimes.com

 Infrastructure developer IVRCL Limited is going slow on its proposal to monetise three more build, operate and transfer projects in the light of expectations that the Union government will soon take a decision to allow 100 per cent stake sale in BOT projects. “It is just a matter of procedure. The decision will come soon as everybody, including the NHAI (National Highways Authority of India), is in favour of it,” IVRCL chairman and managing director, E Sudhir Reddy, told Business Standard. At present, the Centre allows only 74 per cent stake sale in BOT projects.

Reddy said IVRCL would expedite the process of selling more projects after Centre’s decision in this regard. The Hyderabad-based company recently sold three BOT projects – Salem Tollway, Kumarapalayam Tollway and IVRCL Chengapally Tollway – to the Tata group firm TRIL Roads Private Limited. The stake sale is yet to be approved by the NHAI and institutional lenders. The projects have been reportedly executed at a cost of Rs 2,200 crore and nearly two-thirds of this money had been lent by banks.

Reddy, however, said banks approving the stake sale should not be a problem as the projects were sold to a Tata group company, which has a good standing among the financial institutions. Last month, industry sources said, some of the operators of BOT projects hailing from Andhra Pradesh met the Prime Minister and apprised him of their problems.

More than the high interest rates, they were said to have told the Prime Minister that the rising cost of construction material due to sudden policy changes by state government was making development of BOT projects unviable.For instance, Reddy said, IVRCL was now securing sand from Jharkhand to execute a BOT project in Bihar as the Bihar government had banned sand mining in the state. There was also cost escalation on account of state governments delaying in execution of state-support agreement. These along with other factors were resulting in project costs spiralling by almost 15-20 per cent over the original estimates.

Besides, the developers had tendered for BOT projects assuming the GDP growth rate would be in double digits. With no such thing happening, only 5 per cent of the BOT projects in the country was now stated to be profitable.

Amid the brouhaha in India over the border incursions by their troops, Chinese engineers were last week calmly tunneling in the heart of the national capital for the heritage line of the Delhi Metro network, signifying the growing commercial linkages between the two neighbours. Engineers of the

Shanghai Urban Construction Group (SUCG) lowered a massive 300-tonne Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) into a crater that was once a park in the shadows of the city’s main mosque – the 17th century Jama Masjid in old Delhi.

A station will be built here as part of the Delhi Metro’s 9.37 km Central Secretariat- Kashmiri Gate corridor, also called the heritage line because of its proximity to many monuments. “Tunneling this section is quite a difficult and sensitive job because of so many historic monuments here. The task is complicated by the rocky and sandy nature of the soil in this section,” Lu Yuanqiang, chairman, SUCG Infrastructure India, told IANS on location. SUCG has formed a joint venture (JV) with Indian conglomerate L&T that has been awarded different projects by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). With another Indian company, it has already constructed the New Delhi Elevated Subway (viaduct) for the second phase of DMRC’s project. Lu said his company had the expertise required to stabilise the soil in rocky areas where tunneling disturbs stability and increases the risk of subsidence.

On the Mandi House-ITO section of the line, where soil conditions were much better, 500 metres (of the 750-metre long section) of tunnel had been constructed, he said. The JV’s 2009 tunnel section for the Delhi Metro Airport Express – again requiring specialised expertise – was completed well before schedule, Lu said. The heritage line is located nine metres below the existing ramp for the Dwarka-Noida/Vaishali line and runs for 80 metres along the corridor. “The work has to be meticulous as it’s coming up under an operational corridor,” Shen Chenming, the project director, told IANS. Shen, who has been in Delhi for nearly five years, leads the workforce that is largely Chinese. Lu pointed out the difficulties that could arise from externalities in what is otherwise a fruitful collaboration between Indian and Chinese businesses.

“Specifically we face visa problems, delays and uncertainties if the relationship runs into complications for political reasons,” he said. From the business perspective, he had special praise for India, where, he said, public opinion ensures that it is “fair” for those wanting to do business. “India is a very important market for us. The Indian market is open, fair and just, while active public opinion ensures this, at least from our experience in the construction sector,” Lu said. The SUCG-L&T JV also has the contract for constructing the tunnel and stations for the Delhi Metro’s Vasant Vihar-Hauz Khas section.

Source -http://constructionsphere.com

Bank of America Corp., the second largest US lender by assets, has started to shift a small part of the projects it had awarded to India’s software companies to local firms or its own centres to ward off political backlash against jobs being outsourced to India. Bank of America,

which has given contracts worth millions of dollars to companies such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) and Infosys Ltd—India’s top two software exporters—as well as Accenture Plc, will bring back some of its information technology (IT) projects to service providers in the US or to their own centres, according to at least two people familiar with the development, who requested anonymity.

The move comes at a time when North American and European clients of India’s $108 billion IT industry are cutting spending on technology because of economic headwinds. For the year ended 31 March, Indian software exports revenue grew by 10.2%—the slowest since the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008 triggered a global financial meltdown. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank joins the ranks of other large American corporations, including General Motors Co. and American Express Co., that have recently moved projects back to their own centres. The companies are sending jobs back to US to fight criticism over outsourcing in the US and in response to rising labour and infrastructure costs in India.

American Express, which has resumed most of its projects with Indian vendors, had temporarily halted outsourcing projects to software vendors in India last year, due to disruptions caused in its US operations by Hurricane Sandy. “There’s a growing feeling that not all work should be moved offshore. Many companies are starting to believe that not all work should be going to a talent factory,” said one of the people mentioned above. Some of the projects are being sent to centres owned by the companies in India.

“Some banks have really well-run captives (in India), with a cost base that is way lower than third parties. They have a much stronger ability to drive productivity in house than through third parties. They’re doing it incrementally, but to great effect,” said the same person. Bank of America did not respond to emails seeking comment last week and on Monday. India’s top IT firms, including TCS and Infosys, declined to comment, citing client confidentiality. Last year, General Motors, which had contracts worth billions of dollars with Indian and multinational service providers, announced that nearly 90% of its IT works would be done by in-house staff in three-five years. American Express had also temporarily halted projects to software vendors in India last year.

In 2002, Bank of America first signed outsourcing agreements with TCS, Infosys and Accenture, according to data provided by outsourcing advisory firm Everest Group. The company also signed contracts with Aon-Hewitt and Hewlett-Packard Co. owned Electronic Data Systems in 2004. To be sure, this move is not a sign that large clients such as Bank of America and American Express are bringing back their entire IT operations back in-house, like General Motors did last year. “They (clients) are not going to bring everything or big chunks back, but it will be a small part that they’re going to bring in-house,” said Ben Trowbridge, chief executive of outsourcing advisory firm Alsbridge Inc.

He declined to comment on whether Bank of America was bringing projects back in-house, but noted that Bank of America was one that had heavily advertised on hiring more people for their IT operations in the US. “Offshore outsourcing is becoming more expensive as the cost of labour in countries like India continues to rise. Also, attrition and movement between companies continues to happen and is growing,” said Debashish Sinha, chief marketing officer at Systems In Motion, a US-based software services provider. “Overall cost of offshoring has gone up…what companies are seeing is a structural shift in the way IT gets delivered with a lot of the infrastructure moving to the cloud.” Banks and financial services companies are also cutting spending on IT, which experts feel might hurt future revenue growth prospects for Indian companies. “Companies like GM, Procter and Gamble, Bank of America, AmEx—they’re not moving everything, they’re starting to move more of it though,” said the first person, who requested anonsSymity.

Source -http://constructionsphere.com

As many as 30 railway overbridges (RoBs) and one railway underbridge (RuB) have been constructed in Haryana between 2005 and March 2013 at the cost of Rs 651 crore. An official spokesman said that

out of the 31 bridges, 28 ROBs and one RuB were constructed by the Public Works (Building and Roads) wing and two ROBs were built by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA). The spokesman said that construction work on 34 RoBs and RuBs was in progress up to March, 2013 and these will cost Rs 1,210 crore. The construction work on 13 RoBs and RuBs are in progress under PWD (B&R) wing, two under Haryana State Roads Development Corporation, four under HUDA, four under Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructural Development Corporation and 11 under National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). In all, 19 RoBs and RuBs, costing Rs 426.98 crore, have been included in the Railway Work Programme, and are likely to be undertaken soon.

The 73.13-km-long Rewari-Jhajjar-Rohtak railway line has been constructed at the cost of Rs. 602.77 crore with Rs 301.38 crore as share of the state. A sum of Rs 498.25 crore has been spent on the construction of the railway line up to March, 2013 out of which Rs 269.62 crore has been paid by the state government to the Railways. The Hansi-Meham-Rohtak railway line is being constructed at an investment of Rs 406.87 crore. The share of the state government in this railway line is 260.43 crore, and the total length of the track is 68.8 kms. The final location survey is in progress for which the state government has deposited Rs 10 crore with the Railways, he added. The spokesman maintained that the 80-km-long Jind-Sonipat railway line was being constructed at the cost of Rs 694 crore with Rs 347 crore as share of the state. An amount of Rs 435 crore had been spent on its construction up to March, 2013 out of which, the state government has already paid Rs 250 crore to the Railways.

Source-http://constructionsphere.com

Road traffic issues in two major towns in Malappuram are all set to be resolved soon. The ROB at Parappanangadi will be thrown open for traffic on June 8. On the same day, the foundation stone will be laid for the rail overbridge (ROB)

at Angadippuram on NH 213.  The construction of the bridge at Parappanangadi began in June, 2010 and the Roads and Bridges Development Corporation (RBDC) had planned to complete the work within 14 months. But the works was delayed mainly due to technical issues regarding receiving permission for the works from the Railways. Land acquisition for the ROB at Angadippuram was also delayed while it waited for technical sanction from the Railways.

The seven metre wide Parappanangadi overbridge has a total length of 565 metres and has been constructed at an estimated cost of 13.5 crore. The bridge is expected to resolve traffic congestion, which is a major issue that has plagued travelers since the Chamravatton Regulator-Cum-Bridge was opened. The traffic woes of Angadippuram town is also expected to be resolved once the ROB turns into a reality. The estimated cost of the two-lane ROB is Rs 12 crore and the work will be completed using funds from the state government.

The estimated cost of the two-lane ROB is Rs 12 crore.

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