News
Friday, January 14 & 15, 2016
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
Budget 2016: Road ministry seeks Rs 80,000 crore from Centre to fund
highway expansion plan
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Government targets road safety audit of 3,000 km of highways in 2016
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2016 starts with a bang for Mumbai

JICA agrees to give Rs 1,000-cr loan for sewage infra in Pune

Japanese firms, banks looking to invest heavily in India's energy sector:
Piyush Goyal

Make in India: Shipyard industry gets infrastructure status, move expected
to bring down costs
Budget 2016: Road ministry seeks Rs 80,000 crore from Centre to fund
highway expansion plan
The Financial Express,
January 14, 2016
The road transport and highways ministry has sought over Rs 80,000 crore from the
finance ministry to fuel its highway expansion plan in the fiscal year beginning April 1.
The amount is almost double of what the ministry had received in the budget for 201516. A senior official said the ministry plans to use most of the funds sought for the
government's ambitious Bharat Mala project, which envisages construction of 25,000
km of roads along India's borders, coastal areas, ports, religious and tourist places as
well as over 100 district headquarters.
The ministry aims to complete the project by 2022.
"We will be undertaking the construction of some of the Bharat Mala projects through
government-funded engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model. The focus
will still be on constructing highways through public funding as the private sector will
still take some time to come forward," the official said, requesting anonymity.
Road, transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari will be setting up an aggressive
target of awarding around 15,000 km of roads next year, of which 30 per cent will be
done through private participation and the rest through the EPC model. The ministry is
also looking to raise funds through tax-free bonds Gadkari is expected to meet finance
minister Arun Jaitley by the end of this week to put forward his proposal.
News
Road construction has been among the top priorities of the Narendra Modi-led
government. It allocated Rs 42,000 crore for road and highway construction in the 201516 Budget.
Gadkari has said that construction of highways needs to be accelerated to 30 km per day
from the current pace of around 13 km.
The ministry, which has proposed Bharat Mala as an umbrella scheme, estimates an
investment of Rs 80,000 crore on the 7,000 km stretch of border and coastal roads, Rs
85,000 crore on religious and tourists places connectivity, and Rs 30,000 crore on
Setubharatam, which includes construction of 1,500 bridges and over-bridges.
The government also plans to build 9,000 km of roads connecting over 123 district
headquarters at an investment of Rs 60,000 crore, another 7,000 km in backward areas
at Rs 80,000 crore and the 900-km Char Dham stretch, connecting Kedarnath,
Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri, at Rs 11,700 crore. The grant being sought will
include the special funds for the north east region, fuel cess and central road fund.
The ministry has also proposed to construct 15 expressways, out of which eight have
already been approved by the Cabinet. These expressway projects would be taken on the
newly-conceived hybrid annuity model.
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News
Government targets road safety audit of 3,000 km of highways in 2016
The Economic Times,
January 15, 2016
Concerned over rising accidents, government today said it will conduct road safety audit
of 3,000 km of central and state highways this year.
India accounts for 5 lakh road accidents annually in which 1.5 lakh people die and
another 3 lakh are crippled for life. The loss due to this is equivalent to 3 per cent of the
GDP of the country.
"This year, our ministry is targeting 3,000 km to be covered under safety audit. Road
safety audit guidelines are being followed in the current NHAI projects," Road Secretary
Sanjay Mitra said here.
He was speaking at a seminar jointly organised by Road Ministry and International Road
Federation (IRF) as part of the ongoing National Road Safety Week.
"We are also planning to engage the state governments to undertake safety audits of state
highways and district roads," he added.
Road Safety Audit involves evaluating highway improvement scheme during design, at
the end of construction and post construction, to identify road safety problems and to
suggest measures to eliminate or mitigate any concerns.
These audits are undertaken by teams of specialists trained in the skills of road safety
engineering. Strategic road schemes and the majority of new works are required to have
an independent Road Safety Audit to take corrective measures to reduce accidents, Mitra
explained.
"Government is also planning to launch a programme to sensitise and educate truck
drivers on road safety on the lines of AIDS awareness and prevention programme
launched for heavy vehicle drivers several years ago, " he said.
Under the programme, all medium and heavy vehicle drivers will be educated about
careless driving and on the benefits of road worthiness of vehicles, the Secretary added.
IRF Chairman KK Kapila said India has the highest number of accidents in the world.
"With 80 per cent of all road deaths globally estimated in the low-income countries,
India leads the world in road accident deaths with around 1,40,000 people being killed
each year. India accounts for 10 per cent of global road accident deaths," he pointed out.
Safer roads and mobility is one of the five pillars of the UN Global Plan for the Decade of
Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, Kapila added.
"We urge the Centre and the States to fix killer accident prone black spots in Delhi and
other parts of India. These black spots, which are accident-prone sites, have been
identified by the Delhi Traffic police as well as the Union Ministry of Road Transport and
Highways," he said.
News
Several measures including amendment in Motor Vehicle Act (MVA), improvement in
roads from engineering perspective, road safety audits in all stages of road construction
as well as the identification and remedy of black spots will help reduce fatal road
accidents, Kapila said.
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2016 starts with a bang for Mumbai
Business Standard,
January 15, 2016
The MTHL will be a six lane bridge - 16 kilometres in the sea and 6 kilometres on land and is expected to cost over Rs 17,000 crore
It may not be odd or even but Mumbai has started the New Year with a bang, in its own
style. According to state government officials, at least four major infrastructure projects
have been cleared and are about to take off.
Among the projects to have received what officials are calling "final clearance" is the
Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), a project that was conceived over two decades
ago. The MTHL will be a six lane bridge - 16 kilometres in the sea and 6 kilometres on
land - and is expected to cost over Rs 17,000 crore. (WAR ROOM PROJECTS)
Planners say the project will benefit over 20 million residents of Mumbai and Navi
Mumbai by providing a direct link between interline and mainline. It will help those
commuting between South Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. It will also help divert traffic
from South Mumbai to the new airport at Navi Mumbai, reducing congestion at the
arterial roads.
It is expected that Japanese Agency for International Cooperation (JAICA), the main
funding agency, will get the ball rolling. A senior government official told Business
Standard he expects tenders to be issued by March-April 2016.
Coastal road, the second major infrastructure project, got a final nod from the Ministry
of Environment and Forests. For the first time, it has been agreed that the road will be
built by land reclamation and not on stilts in the sea. It has also been agreed that no
residential buildings will be constructed on the reclaimed land. These two issues had
been holding up the final notification for years. It is expected that Brihanmumbai
Municipal Corporation (BMC) will get the tenders in two-three months for the project
which is expected to cost Rs 13,000 crore.
The Navi Mumbai International Airport is also a step closer to becoming reality with the
ministry of civil aviation vetting the request for proposal (RFP) documents, the state
support documents and the concession agreement. Only minor changes have been asked
for - 16 hectares of land for defence ministry, 200 flats for employees, and so on. An
option for Airport Authority of India to buy 5 per cent equity of the Navi Mumbai
International Airport project within the next five years has also been inserted. After the
Maharashtra Cabinet approval, all documents will be handed over to the private players
who have evinced interest. Sanjay Bhatia, managing director of City and Industrial
Development Corporation (CIDCO), says his organisation is fine with the conditions laid
News
down by the aviation ministry. He expects private parties to make final bids later this
year.
Final clearance has also been given for development of Bhendi Bazar. The lay outs have
been finalised and construction has begun. It aims to redevelop 250 decrepit buildings
spread across 16.5 acres of land in the heart of old Mumbai - 17 new towers are to come
up to replace these buildings at a cost of Rs 4000 crore.
It will rehabilitate about 3,200 families and 1,250 small businesses currently housed in
"dangerous conditions". This community-funded initiative is expected to create state of
the art infrastructure that will be a model for future redevelopment projects.
As with all big infrastructure projects in India, there is often a slip between the cup and
the lip. Scepticism prevails when officials claim victory. Kasutubh Dhavse, officer on
special duty to the chief minister says meticulous follow up, attention to detail and
continuous dialogue has helped obtain these clearances. The chief minister's personal
involvement has galvanized all concerned.
Is that enough to push forward projects that have been in cold storage for decades? We
will soon get to know.
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JICA agrees to give Rs 1,000-cr loan for sewage infra in Pune
FE Bureau,
January 14, 2016
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on Wednesday signed an agreement
with the Centre to provide Rs 1,000 crore...
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on Wednesday signed an agreement
with the Centre to provide Rs 1,000 crore (19,064 million yen ) as official development
assistance (ODA) loan for development of sewage collection and treatment infrastructure
in Pune city, 13 adjoining villages and the Cantonment area.
The assistance will mitigate pollution of Mula, Mutha and Mula-Mutha rivers and cater
to the population increase over the coming 30 years. The project is scheduled to be
completed by January 2022.
Environment minister Prakash Javadekar said this agreement marked the beginning of a
new chapter of cooperation with Japan. This assistance will facilitate construction of
sewer lines, pumping stations and treatment plants for treatment of the sewage before its
discharge into Mula, Mutha and Mula-Mutha rivers. It will be mitigating river pollution
and improve the living environment in Pune and adjoining areas and benefit eight
million inhabitants.
The Mula-Mutha is one of the 302 polluted river stretches of the country identified by
Central Pollution Control Board. The major reasons for pollution are discharge of
untreated domestic waste water into the river due to inadequate sewerage system
(including pumping stations) and sewage treatment capacity as well as open defecation
on the river banks.
News
The project cost will be shared between the government of India and Pune Municipal
Corporation (PMC), the implementing agency for the project, in the ratio of 85:15. The
share of central government in the project will be R841.72 crore and of PMC would be
R148.54 crore. The loan has to be repaid by the Centre in a period of 40 years, including
a 10-year grace period.
Tomohide Ichiguchi, deputy chief representative, JICA India Office with S Selvakumar,
joint secretary, department of economic affairs, ministry of finance, signed the
agreement.
“The project aims to improve the water quality in the Mula, Mutha and Mula-Mutha
rivers by augmenting sewage collection systems and sewage treatment facilities in Pune.
Wastewater treatment in the project will contribute to pollution abatement, and thereby
improving the sanitation and living environment for people in Pune and at the watershed
of the downstream area,” said Ichiguchi, deputy chief representative, JICA India Office.
JICA’s assistance will entail construction of a sewer network of over 113.6 km with 11
new
sewage
treatment
plants,
four
sewage
pumping
stations
and
renovation/rehabilitation of four existing intermediate pumping stations.
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Japanese firms, banks looking to invest heavily in India's energy sector:
Piyush Goyal
The Economic Times,
January 14, 2016
Japanese energy companies and financial institutions are looking to invest heavily in
India, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Goyal said companies and lenders in Japan have evinced interest in setting up big solar
projects and equipment manufacturing lines in India, which is expected to quadruple
electricity generation in the next 15 years, while their country does not offer a good
growth proposition. He said the future ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) for which the
government will invite bids also offer investment potential to foreign firms.
The minister met representatives of companies including SoftBank Corp, Toshiba Corp,
Spower Corp, Fuji Electric and banks such as Bank of Tokyo, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking
Corp and Mizuho Bank during the first two days of his government-cum-industry
delegation to Tokyo.
India Inc, represented by industry lobby CII, is part of the delegation.
Goyal met manufacturers of solar wafers and cells on Wednesday to persuade them to set
up manufacturing plants in India. On Thursday, he is scheduled to meet various
financiers including JICA, Nippon Export & Insurance Investment and JBIC that are
looking to tap into opportunities in India's energy sector.
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"The Japanese firms have realised that India offers a huge potential to world. The
Japanese pension funds and insurance companies have a negative interest scenario,"
Goyal said.
India's energy production has an investment potential of $250 billion by 2019 and about
$1 trillion by 2030, he said.
"In the last 25 years, if one assesses rupee, there is a CAGR depreciation of 3.5%, making
rupee one of the most stable currencies in the world. This coupled with government
commitment and Indian citizens' aspirations offers a good potential," the minister said.
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Make in India: Shipyard industry gets infrastructure status, move expected
to bring down costs
The Economic Times,
January 15, 2015
The government has granted infrastructure status to the shipyard industry in a boost to
its Make in India initiative.
The move is expected to bring down borrowing costs for the industry. At present,
companies pay average interest of 14 per cent-15 per cent on their borrowings.
"Shipyards industry has been granted infrastructure status. It will create right
environment for the growth of shipbuilding industry that would now become globally
competitive," a senior shipping ministry official said.
Infrastructure status will also give a boost to government's 'Make in India' initiative and
is expected to help the industry raise its share in global market to 5 per cent by 2020
from less than 1 per cent now.
Indian shipbuilders carry a minimum cost disadvantage of about 30 per cent on the price
of a ship. The promotion of the shipbuilding and ship repair industry in India will lead to
higher multiplier effect on investment and turnover (11.6 and 4.2) and high employment
potential due to multiplier effect of 6.4.
In December last year, the government had granted Rs 4,000 crore subsidy to the
shipbuilding industry to be paid over 10 years. The government will give a subsidy 20 per
cent to private players on total contract cost after delivery of the ship. The subsidy will be
reduced 3 per cent every three years and will be phased out in ten years. The step would
make India's ship building industry more competitive globally.
The government is also likely to make it mandatory for Indian state-owned firms to give
half of their freight business to local shippers to help rescue an industry battered by the
global commodities downturn. The step is being taken to protect the ailing local shipping
firms.
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