Roadblock to four-laning as ryots reject Govt of
December 3, 2009
VIJAYAWADA: The much-awaited widening of Hyderabad-Vijayawada National Highway No.9 project is likely to be delayed for another three to four months as farmers on either side of the highway are not agreeing to part with their land.
The GMR Infrastructure Ltd has bagged the 181-km long road project worth of Rs 1,200 crore on a BOT basis through international competitive bidding and its works are scheduled to begin in January, 2010 after completion of the land acquisition process by Dec, 2009.
However, with the Government intending to acquire land at half its market value, many farmers are not interested in handing over their valuable land for the expansion work.
The 181-km four-laning work on Hyderabad-Vijayawada National Highway would be taken up from 40th km near Malkapuram in Nalgonda district to 221-km mark at Nandigama in Krishna district. For this, a total of 1,053 hectares land would be required in 53 villages in Nalgonda district and 13 in Krishna district.
According to a senior officer in the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the Government which is scheduled to complete the land acquisition process by the first week of December, has so far acquired not even 50 percent of land from the total of 1,053 hectares.When revenue authorities visited the land to be acquired at Nakirekal and Chityala in Nalgonda district and Jaggayyapet in Krishna district some days ago, they experienced a stiff resistance from landowners.
According to local people, the market rate of land in the villages surrounding Nandigama is Rs 15 lakh per acre and Rs 20 lakh per acre in Nandigama town. However, the Government is willing to acquire the land by paying amounts not exceeding Rs 6 lakh per acre.
Source: expressbuzz.com
Indian Tollways Cricket League – First Match
December 9, 2008
The game is very popular among many people and fans do not mind taking a bat and ball and hitting a few lusty blows. You can find people from all age groups involved in playing a cricket match whenever they find the time and the space too.Playing in the highest levels with the best teams in the world may not be something that they can do; nonetheless they play the game just because there is so much of passion involved.All you need to do is gather some people around who are passionate about the game and would love to play the game anytime and thus keeping this in mind INDIAN TOLLWAYS LEAGUE was started and the first match took place between KapschMetroJV and DGSL on 6th of December 2008 at Dwarka sports club.
The First league match was played between KapschMetroJV and Delhi Gurgaon Superconnectivity Ltd.
Mr. Gerald Becvar along with Mr. Sachin Bhatia and Mr. Sachin Sharma tossed the coin for their teams accompanied by the captains , Mr.Gaurav Singh and Mr. Nipun Soni for KMJV and DGSL respectively. KMJV won the toss and invited the DGSL team to bat first. Kicking off to a good start with the bat DGSL managed to score a respectful total of 133 runs. KMJV started slow which ultimately led to the increase of run rate due to which the players were in rush to score and couldn’t perform under building pressure and rising run rate and ultimately lost the match by 32 runs. The organizers were happy to have a match in a true sportsmen spirit and the enthusiasm which kept the match alive throughout thanks to both the teams for a wonderful game. Until next match its the editor signing off assuring you to bring more action from INDIAN TOLLWAYS LEAGUE.
Photo Gallery
Indian Tollways Cricket League
December 4, 2008

Indian Tollways Cricket League is a series of cricket matches planned between various tolling companies.
First match, 6th Dec, 2008:
Kapsch Metro JV vs DSC
Leading infrastructure companies like GMR, INT, SOMA, KMC are kindly invited to come on this Saturday (6th Dec, 2008) and join the league for the next matches.
Indiantollways League Invitation
Team Managers can also apply online by filling the form below:
BR,
Sachin Bhatia
Cartelisation highway leads to Delhi
March 11, 2008
NEW DELHI: The National Highways Builders Federation, a body representing infrastructure companies, has filed a case in the high court against the ministries of finance and surface transport, and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), stating the recently-announced selection process for infrastructure project bidders is promoting cartelisation within the industry. According to the federation, only bigger players such as GMR, GVK and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure will benefit from the new policies. Fearing cartelisation, smaller players, including Gammon India and Navyug, had lodged an official complaint with the federation. In December 2007, the government had announced a new selection process for infrastructure project bidders. According to the policy, only six bidders with the maximum experience would be eligible to participate in the financial bid stage. However, the policy does not specify the names of the six bidders. Earlier, NHAI had been developing infrastructure projects under another scheme in public-private partnership projects. So far, NHAI had issued a notice inviting tenders that was divided into two parts: technical bid and financial bid. In the technical bid stage, the credibility of the bidder was examined. Those eligible for this round could bid in the financial round. For this, the bidder would either give a grant to the government or give the minimum concession period — the shortest period under which it would return project to the government. “The policies are tilted towards the big players in the industry, whereby the top six companies will always be successful bidders with their kind of experience,” Hammurabi & Solomon senior partner Manoj Kumar told ET. Under the present policy, bidders that do not make it to the top six would automatically be pushed out of the race. “This is unfair and will lead to cartelisation,” sources said. Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
Cial has non-metro, foreign airports on radar
November 21, 2007
It plans to participate in the modernization of the 35 airports in the country, apart from the overseas projects
New Delhi: Cochin International Airport Ltd (Cial), the company that built the new international airport at Kochi, India’s first to be built by a private sector firm, is looking to build airports in India and in other countries in an effort to tap growing demand for airline infrastructure in many parts of the world.
Cial plans to participate in the modernization programme of 35 non-metro airports in the country and also wants to build airports in Sri Lanka, Ghana, Angola and Papua New Guinea, according to S. Bharat, managing director, Cial.
Cial was promoted by the Kerala government, financial institutions, airport service providers, non-resident Keralites and a group of entrepreneurs.
The single largest shareholder in the company is the state government with 35% of the paid-up capital.
Bharat added that Cial is in talks with an international finance company and a technical partner to promote a new company that will handle these projects.
Cial’s overseas plans come at a time when international airport operators such as Singapore’s Changi Airport International (CAI), Airport Company South Africa Ltd, Fraport AG and other leading players from Mexico, Turkey, Paris and Germany are looking to partner with Indian companies to bid for airport projects in the country. Singapore’s CAI had floated a joint venture company with Tata Realty & Infrastructure Ltd, a subsidiary of the Tata group for the airport modernization projects in India.
If it wins any of the projects to build airports outside the country, Cial will be following in the footsteps of Bangalore-based GMR Infrastructure Ltd, the lead partner in the consortium that runs Delhi International Airport, which will be developing Sabiha Gokeen International Airport (SGIA) at Istanbul, Turkey. GMR’S partners in this project are Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhard and Limak Insaat Sanavi San Ve Tic A S Turkey.
Bharat confirmed Cial’s overseas aspirations.
“The government of Sri Lanka has invited us to study the possibilities of building an airport there. We have got offers from Ghana, Angola and Papua New Guinea. Cial’s team will shortly visit those countries,” he said.
Cial plans to take up overseas airport projects on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) or build-own-operate (BOO) basis. Under the BOT model, the developer constructs and manages a project for a specified time before handing it over to the government; in the BOO model, the developer continues to operate the project with a local partner.
“The funding of these airport projects would be done by a special purpose company formed under Cial,” Bharat said.
He declined to name the international partners citing confidentiality agreements.
“We are also looking at bidding for the ongoing airport projects within India as we can make airports at lower cost,” Bharat added. The Cochin airport was built at a cost of Rs315 crore including the cost of land.
A government committee on infrastructure, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has estimated that India will need to spend more than Rs40,000 crore in developing airports between 2006-07 and 2013-14. Of this, an estimated Rs31,100 crore is expected to come from public-private partnerships.
The ministry of civil aviation has decided to modernize and upgrade 35 non-metro airports across India.
Besides, the government is also planning to build greenfield airports at Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra), Kannur (Kerala), Hassan and Gulbarga (Karnataka), Ludhiana (Punjab), Greater Noida (NCR), Paykong (Sikkim), Cheithu (Nagaland) and Chakan (near Pune, Maharashtra).
“At a time when current airport modernization programmes envisage spending at least Rs5,000 crore for a single project, Cial had built a world class product on a very modest budget. Cial can cash in on its expertise in the upcoming non-metro airport projects,” said a Mumbai-based aviation analyst, who does not want to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media.


