Stalled road projects get policy push

October 28, 2014

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Roads infrastructure is at murky stage with current logjams in projects. It is a tough road ahead for the newly-formed government as it has to put in place correct policies and reforms to ease the situation.Road sector is crucial for economic growth. Realizing this, the BJP-led government is giving priority to development of road transportation.Business leaders attribute the slack in this sector to lack of political will,which didn’t allow policies to take off in recent past.

The Indian road sector continues to face multiple challenges this financial year with high interest rates, sluggishness in awarding road contracts, reduced availability of funds, slowdown in execution, and increased competitive intensity.However, many projects awarded over the last one year are hanging ire because of delay in land acquisition, clearances, and financial closure.Expectations are fairly high from the Narendra Modi-led government, which won a clear majority in the elections. After a few days of becoming Prime Minister, he said, “A nation that gives impetus to infrastructure, be it roads, rail,airport, that is where chances of development increase. We have to take ownership to build a strong nation.” Business sentiments are improving and corrective actions are being taken to lift the sector from the prolonged sluggishness.

The public-private-partnership (PPP) model of awarding road projects has proved to be a complete failure in India, leading to a dip in road construction to a mere 3 km a day. Challenges are many – overall economic downturn, lack of equity in the market, difficulty in arranging debt, highly-leveraged balance sheets for highways developers and land acquisition, approval and clearance- related issues. Blaming the UPA regime for the present situation, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said the previous government awarded projects without acquiring even 10 per cent of land, which resulted in delays and cost overruns. In a major policy shift, the NDA government has decided to implement projects on Engineering Procurement and Construction(EPC) mode.

At present, 437 projects, entailing an investment of around `21 lakh crore, are delayed due to various issues across infrastructure sector.

Around 260 road projects worth`60,000 crore are stuck, owing to clearances and approvals. All efforts are being made to club road transport and railway ministries for faster implementation of projects. Also in an important decision, the process of clearing road bridges has been simplified with online application. The NHAI would bear construction and maintenance costs of the projects. Some of the decisions are:

▪      MoEF to allow state governments to give permission for sand mining up to 20 hectare as against the existing norm of 5 hectare

▪      State government and regional office MoEF will be allowed to clear linear projects, involving forest land up to 40 hectare

▪      National Board of Wild Life approves projects, falling within 5-10 km radius of various sanctuaries

▪      Railways to standardize ROB & RUB designs & to put the mechanism online

The NHAI board has given in principle approval for creation of a body, Asset Reconstruction Company, which would try to make stalled and non-commercially viable projects feasible. Indian Banker’s Association has already given its consent as most of the roads are turning non- performing assets (NPA). The entity would have two options: Either to take over an entire project, according to the clause of the concession agreement, or complete a small portion of the delayed work. This is a welcome move as it will help improve the situation in the cash-starved sector. There are numerous disputes, involving arbitration cases amounting to `26,556 crore investments between developers and NHAI. The NHAI has so far settled `10,550-crore projects with concessionaires. At least 49 pending claims, involving 26 contractors, has been cleared.

 

For ending corruption, the Amendment in Motor Vehicle Act is proposed in next session of parliament. Some of these changes would be based on best practices of the world like e-governance. The RTOs would be linked to e-governance to bring transparency in the system, plagued by malpractices.

The government would have to work on a policy framework to assure at least 16 per cent internal rate of return for infrastructure projects. This would safeguard developers from foreign exchange fluctuations and boost investment in the sector.India has to soon embark on the next wave of economic growth, which will encompass some fundamental shifts in growth model as well as larger and bigger social reach to beneit its vast population. Being one of the fastest growing economies of the world requires physical infrastructure facilities to continue the pace of development process. The new government at the Centre has to build and expand its key infrastructure to global standards and road sector plays an important role in it.

 

 

Prerna Singh :,Sr.Analyst, Roads Infrastructure,InfralinEnergy

 

 

future smart city

October 13, 2014

 

Source:You tube

‘Hyderabad has all ideals of growing into a smart city’

October 8, 2014

Hyderabad is well positioned and has all the ideals to transform into a smart city, opined the foreign delegates participating at the XI Metropolis World Congress here.

The delegates, who have experience covering urban development projects in top cities globally and heading hackathon competitions annually, strongly felt that the idea of smart city was not just about the technology but it’s the people, and particularly the leadership of the city, that was able to mobilise the interest of civic and academic community, and the private sector to constantly interact to generate the best local ideas for domestic and global problems.

In the run up to XI Metropolis World Congress, the Indian School of Business and Telangana government have kicked off Urban Hackathon, inviting the socially-conscious application developers to create technology solutions to address the challenges faced by the urbanites.

Of the 20 teams shortlisted, five would be declared winners for their frugal innovations for addressing urban traffic management and parking solutions, cleanliness and sanitation, disaster management, women and children safety and slum healthcare solutions.

Explaining that smart cities doesn’t mean just big skscrapers beaming lights and fibre optic cables running fast, Tim Campbell from San Fransisco, having worked for World Bank on urban development, said smart cities were the one’s where civil society and government worked together to make them more liveable.

He further stated “if the Hackathon and Hyderabad’s response to Metropolis is any indication, then the city definitely has a bright future”. Campbell wrote a book titled ‘Beyond Smart Cities’.

Meanwhile, speaking to mediapersons today, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) commissioner Somesh Kumar, which is part of the organising committee for Metropolis, said they were expecting more than 2,000 delegates, including 400 from abroad, to participate in the mega event.

Andhra Pradesh governor ESL Narasimhan will inaugurate the Congress on October 7, which will be attended by Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao among other dignitaries. President Pranab Mukherjee will address the valedictory function scheduled on October 9.

Source:Business Standard

Indore: Smart City project to get a push at global summit

October 8, 2014

Officials of UAE-based SmartCity, Dubai, will take part in the Global Investors’ Summit in Indore and also explore the possibility of developing a smart city in Madhya Pradesh. The state government plans to develop a smart city on 1,000 acres of land at a location between Indore and Bhopal.

“A team of SmartCity, Dubai, will explore the possibilities of developing a smart city like the one in Kochi. A plan and proposed model of the smart city is being prepared,” a state government official said.

Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, during his visit to Dubai in August, had met SmartCity chief executive officer Abdullatif Almulla and discussed the proposed smart city project.

Almulla is also the chief business development officer of Dubai Holding, the company which is the main promoter of the Smart City project in Kochi. SmartCity, Dubai, was recently given permissions to construct the first building of Kochi Smart City with an investment of $29 million.

The Kochi Smart City will be the first in India which would be automated township where knowledge-based companies would operate. However, the Kochi Smart City project has been delayed by several years due to protests by opposition parties over concessions on land and other sops. The global recession that started in 2007 also resulted in delays.

Another smart city in Madhya Pradesh is coming up near Ujjain. The Union government will soon start the process for construction of the smart city, being developed under Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project.

The DMICDC will invite international competitive bidding for developing trunk infrastructure including water supply, sewerage treatment and roadways among others. The government will provide funds for the trunk infrastructure through DMIC Trust.

The master plan for the smart city in Ujjain, which will be an integrated industrial township, has already been accepted by the state government and the land acquisition has been completed. The site for the proposed Vikram Udyogpuri is located about 8km from the temple town of Ujjain, which is about 55km from Indore.

 

 

Source:Hindustan Times

Solar-powered electronic toll plazas to be set up pan-India

October 8, 2014

NEW DELHI: Close on heels of Centre’s announcement to install advanced electronic toll collection system pan-India, the Highways Ministry has said the plazas will be solar-powered.

“The Ministry proposes to develop solar powered toll plazason NHs across the country in order to reduce their carbon footprint,” a Road Transport and Highways Ministry official said.

The Ministry has sought designs for such advanced solar plazas from architects, professionals and qualified engineers by October 31 announcing a prize of Rs 10 lakh for the best entry followed by Rs 7 lakh and Rs 5 lakh for entries qualifying for second and third places respectively, the official said.

NHAI-promoted Indian Highways Management Company Limited (IHMCL) last month said it has inked a pact with Axis Bank for services related electronic toll collection, which the government plans to introduce pan-India.

Considering the complexities and geographical spread, the nationwide electronic toll collection (ETC) would be first of its kind in the whole world, the Ministry has said.

The electronic toll collection (ETC) system on Delhi – Mumbai stretch of the national highways is in the process of operationalisation and a nationwide rollout will be carried out by the end of year.

Earlier this year, IHMCL had signed agreement with ICICI Bank also and it has two banks now to perform clearing and settlement of electronic toll transaction, which is a key requirement for electronic toll collection.

This is subsequent to the initiative taken by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, NHAI and IHMCL for implementation of unified Electronic Toll Collection on Indian national highways.

Electronic Toll Collection enables road users to pay highway tolls electronically without stopping at the toll plazas.

“The unique number of the RFID FASTag affixed on the wind shield of the vehicle will be read by the readers fitted in the dedicated ‘ETC’ lanes of plazas and the toll will be deducted automatically,” a Ministry statement has said earlier.

Road users can enrol and get “FASTag” affixed on their vehicles at designated toll plaza locations or Point of Sale (POS) stations of Axis bank and ICICI bank.

Such type of highway tag brands are common in developed countries and are known by different names like “Eazee Pass”, “SunPass” in the US, “e-Pass” in Australia, “Salik” in Dubai etc.

Source:Economic Times

L&T Technology Services bets on smart machines

October 8, 2014

Mumbai: L&T Technology Services, a unit of India’s largest engineering and construction company Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T), is betting on smart and connected machines in the belief that analytics and the so-called Internet of Things (IoT) will shape the future of engineering. The firm that offers solutions for product design, prototyping and testing and embedded system design, among others, partnered US-based Proximetry, Inc., an IOT device management solutions provider, in January, to cater to the market of connected devices that are critical when operating electrical substations and large industrial facilities.

On 25 September, it announced a tie-up with Cisco Systems, Inc. to jointly invest in a global solution centre in Bangalore to work on connectivity and convergence-based solutions. “We are starting with 3-4 projects in the transportation sector, and are in the process of building the team. Some of the work has been demonstrated in the past in L&T. The idea is to explore how we can work with engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies to make railways, metros, and other mass transit modes more productive, intelligent and safe with the help of Internet protocol (IP)-based communications, Wi-Fi services, video surveillance, and automated operations,” Keshab Panda, chief executive of L&T Technology Services, said in an interview. Cisco’s connected transportation solutions aim at providing a centralized view of highway systems, enabling vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2X) communication so that automobiles can “talk” to each other and with traffic lights, roads, toll plazas, rail crossings and roadside cameras. The solutions also envisage real-time alerts on weather, traffic, and emergencies besides providing greater collaboration between emergency and transit operators and agencies. L&T Technology Services, said Panda, also hopes to take advantage of L&T’s strength in the transportation infrastructure and rail transportation sectors, before “expanding to other areas such as manufacturing, defence, and the off-highway transport segment”.

L&T Technology Services, known as L&T Integrated Engineering Services (IES) till it was rebranded in September 2012, has about 9,500 employees and had revenue of about Rs.2,150 crore in the year ended 31 March, according to Panda. “By the end of this fiscal (2014-15), we will become a $450 million (about Rs.2,750 crore) turnover company,” said Panda, adding that the company gets only 3-4% of its revenue from L&T, and over 50% from the Americas, little over 20% from Europe, and the remaining portion, from the rest of the world. The company, said Panda, also plans to make small acquisitions. In June, L&T Technology Services acquired a 74% stake in Thales Software India Pvt. Ltd for an undisclosed sum to expand its avionics business. “In the next 15 days, we will acquire a US-based analytical and manufacturing engineering company that has operations in India. But we won’t be spending more than $50 million on any acquisition,” Panda said. In a 11 June interview, L&T executive chairman A.M. Naik had said the initial public offering (IPO) process for L&T Infotech and L&T Technology Services will start in July 2016. Naik had then also spoken about “…small-ticket acquisitions of around $30-40 million for its engineering services company”. Analysts see a lucrative business opportunity in technologies that enable devices to communicate with each other. In a 16 September note, research firm Gartner Inc. forecast that the installed base of “things”, excluding personal computers, tablets and smartphones, will grow to 26 billion units in 2020, adding there will be a $309 billion incremental revenue opportunity in 2020 for IOT suppliers from delivering products and services.

Software lobby group Nasscom expects the engineering and research and development (R&D) outsourcing industry in India to touch $40 billion by 2020 from the current $10-11 billion mark with automotive, telecom, retail and aerospace industries expected to outsource 40% of their engineering activities to engineering service providers by 2020. But the competition is stiff, too. Big- and mid-sized Indian IT services providers like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd, Wipro Ltd, Tech Mahindra Ltd, KPIT Technologies Ltd and Tata Technologies Ltd also have big clients in the engineering vertical, and partner with networking companies to provide similar solutions that take advantage of technologies like M2M or Machine-to-Machine (where information is collected by a sensor transmitted across a network of wired or wireless devices), and smart meters—that monitor consumption and use analytics.

The fact remains, though, that the engineering services segment is at “an inflection point with significant shifts in business models, increased demand for solutions and globalization driving up the competition amongst global players”, as noted in the ‘Global R&D Service Providers Rating 2013’ annual study by advisory firm Zinnov Management Consulting.This should alert engineering service providers, said the study, to look at opportunities such as “engineering analytics” since global companies are expected to spend over $27 billion on engineering analytics. Panda believes data analytics in engineering is far more complex than it is in the retail sector. “You have to account for factors like current, voltage, harmonics, etc., and know how to fix it,” he explained, concluding that the success of IOT-enabled sensors lie in reducing their cost, “something that we’re working on”.

Source:live mint

Centre Lists Conditions for Getting Smart City Label

October 8, 2014

CHENNAI: Cities along the coast, hills as well as those having a population between one to four million could be among the 100 to be developed as Smart Cities.

Official sources said that the Union Ministry of Urban Development has circulated a draft concept note to State governments on a set of proposed conditions for eligibility for the smart city tag.

Sources said the Centre has sought proposals for approval of satellite cities, cities of tourist and religious importance as well as cities in the 0.2-1 million population range. These proposals are likely to be reviewed by a committee before approval by the Central government.

Sources said that the approval process would have two stages. In the first stage, cities and states would have to submit an Integrated Smart City Development Plan, based on the Smart City Reference Framework.

Thereafter, cities would be sanctioned an initial amount for preparation of professional and comprehensive project reports. Under the second stage, the Project Reports would be evaluated by designated Project Management Units and finally approved by an Empowered Committee.

 

 

Cities that desire to participate in the smart city programme should develop a financing plan along with their smart city development plan and detailed project reports. Sources said the financing plan developed for a city or urban agglomeration could factor in resources from multiple government agencies and departments — not restricted to the ambit of urban development schemes alone. It is also learnt that the Union government has suggested a set of 13 benchmarks for smart cities — transport, spatial planning, water supply, sewerage, sanitation, solid waste management, storm water drainage, electricity, telephone connections, wi-fi connectivity, healthcare facilities, education, firefighting and others like renewable energy as well as adopting green building norms.

Both the states and Centre are banking on the private sector for developing smart cities. Sources said that using an average figure of one million people in each of the 100 smart cities, the total estimate of investment requirements for the services covered by high power expert committee comes to `7 lakh crore over 20 years.

This translates into an annual requirement of `35,000 crore. However, these estimates need to be analysed for the purpose of funding.

 

Source:The Indian Express

Modi’s smart cities: Top urban planner wonders if one can have islands of prosperity amidst ocean of poverty

October 6, 2014

GIFT: A “replica” of smart city

By Our Representative
Veteran town-planning expert MN Buch has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of building 100 smart cities across India, saying in spite of decades of knowledge in urban planning, he has failed to find any clarity on the subject. “I spoke to high officials in the Ministry of Urban Development and they told me that they too are not very clear about what is meant by smart city, even as they are trying to work out the parameters of such a city”, Buch, former vice-chairman of the National Commission on Urbanization, said.
In his commentary in Lilia Interactions, Buch, a 1957 batch IAS officer from Gujarat who received Padma Bhushan for his contribution in urban town planning, said, “I suppose one could call a city that is totally technology driven as a smart city, but technology has drawbacks, because human interaction eventually introduces so many elements of unpredictability. Therefore, at best the city re-mains smart only in part.” Currently, Buch is a senior administrator and urban planner at Bhopal.
Referring to Gujarat International Finance Tec-city (GIFT), Buch said, the very talk of a global financial city amuses him. “It follows the model of similar cities in Shanghai. In fact, it is not a new city but a sub-city that is self-contained, and with the entire infrastructure of a city providing financial ser-vices of a high order. Would La Défense in Paris be considered a smart city, or would it count as an ultra modern sub-city located in Paris? Are new towns such as Evry in the Loire Valley smart cities, or are they new towns like Milton Keynes in England?”, he wondered.
“Obviously, 100 new smart cities will be green-field ventures, separated from our existing settlements by a technology chasm. When Jawaharlal Nehru built steel plants in the middle of nowhere, whole new cities such as Bhilai, Durgapur and Rourkela came up almost overnight. An earlier example was that of the Tata-built city of Jamshedpur. I suppose in their own day and age they were smart cities. So, I presume, are new capitals such as Chandigarh, Islamabad and Brasilia”, he said.
Wondering if these cities have been left untouched by the rest of the country in which they are located, Buch asked, “Chandigarh, designed as the perfect planned city, has become like Lutyens’ New Delhi, with a green and almost imperial core – both are under heavy pressure from the rest of Delhi and the National Capital Region, and Mohali and Panch Kula, respectively. Ultimately, these new towns become oases of planned prosperity in the midst of a desert of poverty, so it is but natural that the poor drift towards the new cities in search of employment.”
Pointing out that nobody has thought about this, Buch said, “We thus have a planned city surrounded by a mass of unplanned settlements, resulting in a situation where a planned city and an unplanned city are in close juxtaposition. Can this be avoided in the 100 new smart cities? Till India achieves a level of equity and equality in income, job opportunities and lifestyles, the smart city will be the magnet, the people will be the iron filings attracted to the magnet and soon the magnet will wear an untidy beard of iron filings.”
Suggesting that smart cities are sought to be built citing movement of people from rural to urban areas, Buch said, this is just not happening in India at the required pace. He said, “Successive censuses have shown that the highest growth is taking place in the middle level towns. If we take the fifty-three metropolitan cities, they contain 19.24 per-cent of the total urban population of India, but as a proportion of the total population, they account for a little more than six per cent. This does not suggest the kind of mass movement from rural areas to urban settlements as has been experienced, for example, in China.”

Source:counterview

‘Include Belgaum in list of smart cities’

October 6, 2014

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was here for a while on Sunday en route to Tasgaon in Sangli district in Maharashtra, where he addressed an election rally in the afternoon.

Mr. Modi was accorded a warm reception at the Belgaum airport on his arrival by an Indian Air Force aeroplane. The dignitaries included Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Suresh C. Angadi, MP; former Minister Umesh V. Katti; Rajya Sabha member Prabhakar Kore; Vishwanath I. Patil, MLA; Mahantesh M. Kavatagimath, MLC; former MLA Abhay Patil; BJP district unit president Eranna Kadadi; and BJP Belgaum city unit president Ujwala Badavanache. Deputy Commissioner N. Jayaram, Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao, and Assistant Commissioner of Police Anupam Agarwal were present.

Memorandum

The BJP leaders presented a memorandum to the Prime Minister with a request to include Belgaum in the list of smart cities and take up Centrally aided development works in Belgaum city and other backward areas in the district. Mr. Modi was also urged to advise the Railway Ministry to consider introducing a high-speed train between Mumbai and Bangalore via Belgaum, besides doubling the existing broad gauge line between the two metro cities. The BJP leaders stressed on according priority to Belgaum city while taking up Centrally aided development works, such as research laboratories, academic institutions and promoting medium and major scale industries.

They told the Prime Minister that Belgaum was gifted with natural resources such as rivers and forests along the Western Ghats. The city nestled between the boundaries of three States viz. Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra was well-connected by rail, road and air. The city was a major educational hub in north Karnataka and also had good healthcare facilities. In view of the State government’s steps to develop Belgaum city as a second capital of Karnataka, the Centre should also encourage and support them, Mr. Angadi said.

 

Source:The Hindu

Are India’s ‘Smart Cities’ a Smart Move?

October 6, 2014

May 16, 2014 is now a historic day for democratic India, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s coalition winning an overwhelming majority. It sparked nationwide optimism, with a growing GDP, the Sensex rising over 10 percent in 4 months, and the hope of acche din (good days) for the Indian economy. As a part of the budget, the finance minister, Arun Jaitley, has promised numerous projects for this term, including the creation of 100 smart cities – or cities with sophisticated IT features.

This grandiose pledge had been envisioned by Modi as a part of the achhe din campaign from the outset. More than 7000 crore ($1.13 billion) has been allocated to the endeavor, or 70 crore per city. Insisting this was to be the seed money, the government pledged additional investments in due course. The concept is based on ecologically friendly urban settlements that exploit technology to offer a more structured living environment. Such cities would have a centralized control system that provides real-time data on the availability of water, electricity, education, public transportation and sanitation: the basic modern-day needs.

All of which begs a question: Are smart cities really important? The project’s aim is “housing for all,” and that is possible only through affordable housing. Much like other developing nations, India has high levels of rural-urban migration – the country is expected to have an urban population of 530 million by 2030, up from 390 million in 2008. Given the fast pace of development, better living standards are being sought by those with lower incomes, and a new middle class is emerging. Official data show that approximately 269 million people in India are still below the poverty line, but millions are moving out of poverty every year. It is for this rising class that the need for better living standards arises. To accommodate this growing and increasingly mobile populace, it is imperative that a sustainable model of housing be developed. But are smart cities the answer? Certainly, in theory the idea sounds very appealing. In practice, it is much less certain and the answer won’t be known until India actually builds some. India has already taken serious steps to turn certain cities into smart cities. International assistance has been sought from Singapore and Japan, among others. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between India and Japan to develop Varanasi into a smart city based on the experience of its Japanese counterpart – Kyoto.

It will be important to see what India is getting into, rather than becoming overwhelmed with the idea. The smart city concept implies an oversimplified vision of technology. It is based on the belief that technology can solve any problem without fundamentally changing lifestyles. However, can India’s problems actually be simplified to the point that they can be controlled by a large set of data points? Does this mean that the current problems are not social, but technological? Given a country as diverse as India, can the heterogeneity of its cities be accommodated in a linear vision backed by technology? These questions will be worth considering as the project proceeds. The concept, though, is immensely appealing: India is truly considered a symbol of “unity in diversity,” and this time the unity can be brought under the surmounting umbrella of technology.

The radical shift India is experiencing lifestyles and the attendant demands for a better standard of living could be answered by the concept of smart cities. The age of digitization is upon us, and it seems that sooner or later people will have to turn to technology to answer many of their problems. In Modi’s first 100 days as prime minister, a lot has been done; however, it is a short period to deliver something concrete on the technology front. Still, he has made a significant imprint with his tech-enabled beginning, and it may someday bear fruit.

In this era of digitization, it is interesting to see the nation’s leader envision such a future. On paper, the initiative seems to be an ideal plan for the poverty stricken economy, but given the high levels of bureaucracy, it will be interesting to see how it plays out. The move is very much in the right direction; execution, however, will be key.

 

Source:The Diplomat

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