L&T to convert Nagpur into country’s first large-scale integrated Smart City

August 19, 2016

Heavy engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro has been chosen by the Maharashtra government to convert Nagpur into the country’s first large-scale integrated Smart City. In the first phase, L&T’s Smart World & Communication business vertical, which is a part of L&T Construction, will cover laying of 1,200 km of optical fiber network backbone in the City of Oranges, creating 136 city wifi hot-spots at key locations, establishing 100 digital interactive kiosks and developing city surveillance systems with 3,800 IP-based cameras.

Further, as an avant-garde endeavor, the city has identified a strip of approximately 6 km (from Japanese Garden Square to Orange City Hospital Square) to be developed as a ‘Smart Strip’ with state-of-the-art systems powered by smart ICT interventions like smart transport, solid waste management, smart lighting, etc. This is to be leveraged in a phased manner to ultimately cover the entire city.

“After Jaipur, this is the most significant step in the country’s journey towards establishing smart cities and we are delighted to be participating in transforming Nagpur into one,” said S N Subrahmanyan, Deputy Managing Director and President, Larsen & Toubro. “As a master systems integrator, we will provide leading-edge technology solutions including high-end analytics, mobile surveillance and high-tech tools like drones,” he added. L&T’s Smart World business has executed the smart city project in Jaipur and is executing India’s largest city surveillance project comprising 6,000 cameras across 1,500+ locations in Mumbai. Projects are also underway in Delhi, Lucknow and Hyderabad, the company said.

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Road Projects worth INR 37000 Cr coming up in the North-East

August 16, 2016

The government has informed law makers that there are 197 road projects that are being developed in the North Eastern region of the country under the watch of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). The total length and sanctioned cost of these projects are 4320.95 km and Rs 37691.05 crore respectively. This was stated by Jitendra Singh, minister of state for Development of North Eastern Region in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. “Government is, in fact, giving special attention to infrastructure development projects, such as, road, rail, communication, and telecom network in the North Eastern Region,” the Minister said in his statement.

Apart from the road projects, 20 major railway projects comprising 13 new lines with a length of 2,624 km, costing Rs 52,030 crore have also been taken up in the North Eastern Region. “An expenditure of Rs 2,1336 crore has been incurred on these projects up to March, 2016. An outlay of Rs 5,040 crore has been provided for 2016-17 for these projects and for the residual liabilities of some completed projects,” the minister informed the members.

In addition, the North Eastern Council (NEC) is implementing 715 various developmental projects in North Eastern States, which are under way at a total approved cost of Rs 7,14,864.98 lakh. Ministry of Rural Development is providing assistance to respective state governments under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) programme.

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IIT-KGP to suggest technology for maintenance-free highways

August 16, 2016

Maintenance of the country’s national highways for a longer period could get a new lease of life with the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur set to embark on an ambitious project which will suggest technologies for maintenance-free highways. The step is also seen as environment friendly as it will need lesser natural resources. At present, the construction of these highways requires a monolithic (in-situ) layer of cement concrete normally 300 mm thick, laid continuously over the prepared surface. The idea is innovation of technology to optimise the design of concrete pavement in its traditional form which can facilitate faster construction at much cheaper costs.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and IIT-Kharagpur signed a pact recently for a research project to develop a technology to construct long-lasting maintenance-free highways in the country. “The duration of the research project is three years and NHAI has paid Rs 1.25 crore for the project, excluding cost of construction of trial pavement section,” NHAI said. NHAI and IIT Kharagpur will develop a technology to construct Panelled Cement Concrete (Pre-fabricated in a small panel size) which can replace the design of construction of existing cement concrete road.

The common experience in the national highways are that it is prone to damage and needs frequent maintenance due to adverse climatic conditions such as rain and hot weather since they are generally paved with bituminous (asphaltic concrete) material produced from refineries. To overcome this problem, the government has recently announced a policy for the construction of concrete pavements for all major highways due to their longevity and maintenance-free life. “The paneled concrete pavement laid on a lean concrete base can fulfill the Government of India’s dream of providing long-lasting maintenance-free pavements at a cost at par with those of asphalt pavements,” NHAI said.

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ICICI to issue 4 lakh ETC tags by March 2017

August 10, 2016

ICICI Bank – the largest private sector lender of the country – aims to issue four lakh electronic toll collection tags by March 2017. The private sector lender is the first to launch and implement an inter-operable Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) platform on national highways. The bank is also targeting to record three million transactions by the end of the current financial year. The bank has made ‘Electronic Toll Collection’ live at 343 toll locations across major national highways of the country, which covers over 90 per cent of the tolled national highway network.

Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank said, “Currently, we have made this service live across 343 toll locations in the country, thus covering over 90% of the tolled national highway network. We are closely working with the Road Transport & Highways Ministry, NHAI (National Highway Authority of India) and IHMCL (Indian Highways Management Company Limited) to cover more highways under ETC in the near future.”

“ICICI Bank is delighted to be associated with the implementation of Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) on national highways. We were the first bank in the country to launch this innovative service and have successfully set benchmarks that are now being leveraged to create national standards for inter-operability between all banks,” Ms Kochhar added. Overall, ICICI Bank has issued over 30,000 FASTags which are currently in use for electronic toll collection. The bank was the first to launch this service on the Mumbai – Vadodara corridor of NH8 in 2013.

FASTag is a simple to use, reloadable tag which enables automatic deduction of toll charges and lets you pass through the toll plaza without stopping for the cash transaction. FASTag is linked to a prepaid account from which the applicable toll amount is deducted. The tag employs Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) technology and is affixed on the vehicle’s windscreen after the tag account is active. A vehicle with the ‘FASTag’ can use the dedicated lanes on either side of the toll plaza to avoid long queues in the cash lanes of the toll plazas.

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Hybrid Annuity Model makes inroads into BOT projects

August 9, 2016

Road builders who have shown an interest in the new hybrid annuity model (HAM) to build roads are making a killing with profit margins in excess of 20%. This compares much more favourably to even build, operate, transfer BOT) projects where margins usually range between 16-18%. Rohan Suryavanshi, Head, Planning and Strategy, Dilip Buildcon, said, “Yes, the margins are good, with respect to the projects we have bagged so far under the new model.” “Most of the companies are building in their margins during the construction phase into the project cost itself, resulting in high internal rate of return on equity,” an analyst explained. While this is not usually done in EPC contracts, the fact that HAM is a new model with lesser numbers of bidders in the fray (compared to EPC projects) has resulted in some opportunistic bidding with companies building in extra margins into the cost of the project. However, said the analyst, “Prima facie, the equity returns are about 10% or so which is what the government has intended with this model. But, obviously, no player is going to put in equity to earn just 10%.” So far, the bigger and more experienced companies have not yet bid for these projects. Shailesh Sawa, Director, Business Development & Strategy, Essar Projects, said, “We are open to considering various options if the project is promising, with a reasonable risk profile and good returns.” Sawa added that he is evaluating a number of upcoming highway projects that are being tendered on the EPC mode. Sudhir Hoshing, Joint Managing Director, IRB Infrastructure, said that since this was a new model, a new category of players is emerging. “The bidding has already become very competitive. We’ll wait and see how this plays out.” MEP Infrastructure is one among the new players bidding for HAM projects and has bagged about six projects under the new model. Analysts believe that this sort of interest to become first-time asset owners is representative of a greater enthusiasm among new and smaller companies. However, another CEO of a leading road developer said that he was apprehensive of certain clauses in the new model. “Where the HAM agreement really fails is in ensuring a clear and unwavering definition of the revenue stream for the project. The revenue stream is subject to too many potential adjustments along the way, both during construction and O&M periods. These concerns affect the sanctity of the revenue stream and destroy the element of certainty normally expected and associated with an annuity model,” he said, asking not to be identified. The National Highways Authority of India has published a list of 6,600 km it intends to award this year, and the ministry, too, is working on a complete list of projects it intends to award to achieve the overall target of 25,000 km for FY17. Of the total, the ministry has a stated intent to award 85-90% of projects under HAM and EPC, skewed towards the former. The HAM was conceived to moderate risks faced by highway developers and provide financial support during construction. Projects under this model were slow to take off with the first few projects seeing just two-three bidders and roughly 400 km being awarded since the model was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in January this year. Under this model, 40% of the project cost is provided by the government as construction support to the developer in five equal instalments, based on the targeted completion of the road project. The remaining 60% balance is provided as annuity payments over the concession period. The toll is collected by the government, relieving the developer of this politically sensitive issue. In such projects, developers are also offered 80% prior land acquisition and forest clearances. The model was first proposed by the Road Transport and Highways Ministry in February 2015 and it came into effect exactly a year later.

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Did you Spot the difference in congestion level?

August 26, 2015

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Boldness plus Practicality for emerging economies

June 24, 2015

Boldness plus Practicality for emerging economies

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Message for our Readers

June 15, 2015

Dear Indian Tollways Readers,

Traffic Management at Gurgaon Faridabad toll is pathetic during traffic hours. It takes more than 15 minutes to cross the toll.

There is no lane management. Some people would fly out of queues and create chaos and damage to vehicles.

Specifically situation is pretty bad on Monday and Tuesday mornings .

New congestion points developing at Valley view apartment, Ghata Turn and red light which was not the case month back..

Please express you opinion and solutions in comments.

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Case Studies on Smart Traffic Initiatives in Amsterdam, Singapore, Tokyo, Glasgow and London

May 5, 2015

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	Dear Industry Professional, The Smart Traffic Middle East Conference (STME 2015) which will be held at the Beach Rotana Hotel, Abu Dhabi on 18 – 19 May 2015 will feature exclusive case studies on various smart traffic and transport management initiatives around the world. In a series of case study sessions and presentations, STME 2015 will discuss best practices, lessons learned and key strategies implemented internationally for smart traffic and transport management. Below is the list of international case studies to be presented at Smart Traffic Middle East 2015. Click here to download the complete programme and list of speakers


	Amsterdam

The session led by Frans Anton Vermast, Senior Advisor to Amsterdam Smart City will look at a holistic smart city approach as a facilitator for smart traffic, including lessons learned from the Amsterdam Smart City initiative.


	Glasgow

Focusing on traffic safety in highly populated cities, Michael McLaughlan, Former Programme Director at Glasgow Future Cities Demonstrator Programme will discuss how Glasgow became the surprising choice as UK’s Future City and lessons learned from the city as a test bed for technology and innovation to solve real life problems.


	Tokyo

Dr. Chinthaka Premachandra, Assistant Professor at Tokyo University of Science will discuss the ITS trends in Japan. Dr. Premachandra’s presentation will also include possible visible light communication techniques for ITS and unexpected road obstacle detention and avoidance.


	London

Discussing the future of electric vehicles and green mobility in the current environment, Elliot Treharne, Air Quality Manager at the Greater London Authority will share insights into London’s ambitious new plans to create the world’s first Ultra Low Emission Zone and measures that will help London achieve the best air quality of any world city by 2020.


	Singapore

In an exclusive presentation on grand challenges in Smart City development, Khoong Chan Meng, Director & CEO, Institute of Systems Science at the National University of Singapore will discuss how smart cities help to address the challenges of housing, employment, education, healthcare and transport.

	Register Now

	Join us at Smart Traffic Middle East 2015 and be a part of the discussions that will shape the future of the traffic and mobility solutions in the region. To view the various pricing options and to register online, please click here. For group delegate packages, please contact Wajahat Hussain on [email protected] or call +971 4 3894621.

Sponsorship and Exhibition Opportunities

Partnering and exhibiting at Smart Traffic Middle East (STME 2015) will provide your company with a unique platform to present your products and services to senior decision-makers most relevant to the sector.

For more information on the sponsorship and exhibition packages please contact Dishan Isaac on + 971 50 45 01 743 or email [email protected]

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