The Centre has sanctioned Rs 641.46 crore for building an elevated corridor between Sangolda junction to the Majestic hotel section of NH-66 to improve accessibility to the newly built Mopa Airport.
The 5.15-km-long six-lane elevated corridor at Porvorim is being developed by Ministry of Road Transport & Highways.
“This project will resolve the traffic congestion in the section of NH-66 leading upto Panjim City and also channel accessibility to the newly commissioned MOPA airport. The project upon completion is expected to give impetus to tourism and industry in the state,” said Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday (18 April).
The stretch of highway between the Sangolda-Guirim Junction and Conqueror Circle is one of the busiest routes in the State, especially with traffic proceeding along the Mapusa-Panaji and Saligao-Panaji routes.
The huge flow of traffic on the highway in addition to traffic proceeding to the Mall de Goa and other business establishments in Porvorim have often led to traffic jams along the stretch.
The State government initially had plans to widen the highway, but following objections from owners of businesses and houses along the highway at Porvorim, the plan was revised to a highway on stilts.
A number of owners of businesses and houses then approached the Supreme Court but the matter was settled, enabling the State government to go ahead with the project.
The speedy expansion of compressed biogas (CBG) will help India in meeting its additional energy requirements from domestic sources, Union Minister for Petroleum Hardeep Singh Puri.
While addressing the Global CBG Conference of the Indian Federation of Green Energy (IFGE) — CBG Producers Forum, Puri said said on Monday, “The government has an ambitious target to set up 5,000 commercial (CBG) plants by 2024-25 and produce 15 million metric tonnes of CBG, which will replace other gases which are being used in the country”.
CBG
CBG — a biofuel — is produced from biomass sources like agriculture residue, cattle dung, sugarcane press mud, municipal solid waste, sewage treatment plant waste, etc.
The biogas is purified to remove impurities such as hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, water vapour and compressed as CBG, which has more than 90 per cent methane content.
Further, CBG is exactly similar to the commercially available natural gas in its composition and energy potential. With similar calorific value and other properties similar to CNG, compressed biogas can be used as an alternative, renewable automotive fuel. Given the abundance of biomass in the country, CBG has the potential to replace CNG in automotive, industrial and commercial uses in the coming years.
This explains why the government has been prioritising development of CBG plants in the country as it would reduce its dependence on imports of natural gas.
Puri said that the government of India has set a target to increase the share of gas in the energy mix up to 15 per cent in 2030 to make India a gas-based economy.
“Presently we are importing around 50 per cent of our requirement of natural gas. The speedy expansion of CBG will help in meeting our additional requirement from domestic resources,” the Union Minister said.
SATAT
As part of initiative under the National Biofuel Policy, 2018, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas launched the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) initiative in October, 2018 for promoting use of CBG in the CNG (transport) and PNG (domestic) sector of city gas distribution (CGD) supplies of natural gas.
SATAT has envisaged setting up 5,000 CBG plants with total CBG production capacity of 15 million metric tonne per annum (MMTPA) ie, equivalent to 54 MMSCMD of gas by 2024-25.
Under the initiative, oil and gas marketing companies (OGMCs) viz, Indian Oil, HPCL, BPCL, GAIL and IGL have been inviting expression of interest (EoI) from potential investors/entrepreneurs to procure CBG for further selling to automotive and commercial customers. Oil and gas companies are signing commercial agreements for 15 years for procurement of CBG, to be further extended mutually.
So far 46 CBG plants have been commissioned and sale has been started from more than 100 retail outlets. Also, around 40 plants are expected to be commissioned by April 2023.
Further Union budget 2023 has given a huge boost to bio-CNG with a special attention on setting up CBG projects under the umbrella of GOBARdhan (Galvanising Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan) scheme.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, presenting Union Budget 2023-24 in Parliament, had earmarked Rs 10,000 crore towards setting up of 200 CBG plants and 300 community and cluster-based biogas plants.
Vande Bharat Express, which is India’s first semi-high speed train has been running at an average speed of much lower than 100 kilometre per hour (kmph).
According to the Railway Ministry’s response to a Right to Information (RTI) query from Madhya Pradesh resident Chandrashekhar Gaur, the train has been running at an average speed of around 83 kmph for the last two years.
During this period, the train also ran at an average speed of 95 kmph on one route.
It should be noted that the Vande Bharat 2.0 which is currently being rolled out has a maximum speed of up to 180 kilometres per hour and the permissible maximum speed for commercial services is 130 kmph.
The data revealed that the average speed of Vande Bharat trains in India was 84.48 kmph in 2021–22, which decreased to 81.38 kmph in 2022–23.
The Ministry said that the poor conditions of the railway tracks was the cause for the slow speed of the train, with trains unable to hit the permissible speed limit over most stretches in the network.
At present, 14 Vande Bharat trains are in service. Five trains are running from Delhi to Varanasi, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra, Bhopal, Amb Andaura and Jaipur. Three are running from Mumbai to Gandhinagar, Sainagar Shirdi and Solapur.
Vande Bharat trains are also operational between Chennai-Mysuru, Chennai-Coimbatore, Bilaspur-Nagpur, Howrah-New Jalpaiguri, Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam and Secunderabad-Tirupati.
According to the RTI reply, the highest average speed of the Vande Bharat train during this period was 95 kmph, attained by the country’s first Vande Bharat Express train, the New Delhi-Varanasi Vande Bharat Express, which was launched in 2019.
The RTI further revealed that the Rani Kamalapati (Habibganj)-Hazrat Nizamuddin Vande Bharat Express comes in a close second, maintaining an average speed of 94 kmph.
The Mumbai CSMT-Sainagar Shirdi Vande Bharat Express has the lowest average speed of just 64 kmph.
Even though Vande Bharat trains are running at a much slower speed than stipulated, the Railway officials said that the average speed of Vande Bharat Express train is better than Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express trains due to their faster acceleration/deceleration.
“It has to be understood that no mode of transport can maintain maximum speed throughout its journey. The condition of the surface it is running on is a big factor. The average speed of Vande Bharat train in each section is more than the fastest train running in that section. For example, it runs at a maximum permissible speed of 160 kmph between Agra Cantt and Tughlakabad,” a Railway official said.
Officials said while these trains are built to run at high speed, the rail network is also being upgraded so that Vande Bharat-like trains can attain higher speeds in the future.
The upcoming Noida International Airport (NIA) at Jewar in Uttar Pradesh may soon have rail and road link with the nearby cities like Greater Noida and Bulandshahr.
The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) has started working on the 16-km-long, 100-metre-wide expressway and a railway track of the same length between Chola station in Bulandshahr and the airport site, as reported by ET Infra.
The proposed expressway and railway track will make travelling to the airport from Bulandshahr convenient and benefit the logistics and warehousing sectors coming up in the vicinity.
“MARS Planning & Engineering Services, which has been working on several YEIDA projects, has been tasked with preparing preliminary reports on both projects in 15 days. We will send the railway track report to the railway ministry for further action,” said YEIDA CEO Arun Vir Singh.
Singh added that while YEIDA would construct the expressway, the railways would build the tracks.
The move to build new connectivity to Bulandshahr follows restructuring of the YEIDA jurisdiction.
The Uttar Pradesh government in February 2023 had added 55 villages from Khurja and Secunderabad tehsil areas in Bulandshahr district to the YEIDA territory.
The authority area has been extended to the Delhi-Howrah railway route, and the under-construction eastern dedicated freight corridor, which runs parallel to the Delhi-Howrah railway line.
Priority has been given to this area due to its logistics and warehousing opportunities as it is located between a railway station and an airport.
The Haryana government last week approved a proposal for rail connectivity between Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport and Hisar’s Maharaja Agrasen International Airport for freight as well as passengers.
Accordingly, feasibility report has been taken up by the Haryana Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation (HRIDC) and will be sent to Ministry of Railways for sanction.
The Delhi-Hisar rail link would cover Bijwasan, Gurugram, Garhi Harsaru, Sultanpur, Farukhnagar and Jhajjar.
It will boost regional development, improve transportation efficiency, and promote sustainable mobility for both freight and passengers.
In the first phase of the project, rail link between Garhi Harsaru-Farukhnagar–Jhajjar will be developed while in the second phase, the 25 km connectivity to Maharaja Agrasen International Airport in Hisar will be taken up.
Earlier in March, Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala had said the Maharaja Agrasen Hisar Airport will be made operational by 1 November. Under the regional connectivity scheme, air service will be started from Hisar on nine routes to different states.
The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has started preliminary work on an Expressway Connector to Samruddhi Mahamarg from Jalna to Nanded (Jalna-Nanded expressway).
Last week, the agency invited Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to select eligible contractors for the construction of the 179.85 km Jalna-Nanded expressway.
The project has an estimated cost of Rs 10,733.2 crore, with a completion period of 30 months and defect liability period of 10 years.
Alignment
The state government has proposed to develop additional connectors or access controlled expressways to connect other major districts to Samruddhi Mahamarg.
Jalna-Nanded Greenfield Expressway is one such connector which will provide a direct and the fastest connectivity for Nanded, Hingoli, Parbhani and Jalna districts to state capital Mumbai and further to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) as well.
The direct connectivity is expected to help reduce time taken to transport goods to international destinations and boost the economy of the rural parts of Nanded, Hingoli, Parbhani and Jalna districts.
The proposed expressway starts at Jalna on the Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg and traverses southwest through Jalna, Parbhani and Nanded district and ends on the Nanded-Deglur-Telangana national highway-161.
Indicative Alignment of Jalna-Nanded Expressway.
Unique Features
The six-lane expressway will have a design speed of 120 kmph with a 100 m Right-of-way (RoW).
A unique feature of the expressway will be the provision of a 20 m space for the construction of High-Speed Rail Corridor.
Samruddhi Corridor
Officially named ‘Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg’, the 701-km-long expressway connects Mumbai and Nagpur.
The first phase, connecting Nagpur to the temple town of Shirdi in Ahmednagar district covering a distance of 520 km, has been opened to traffic from December 2022.
Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway Map. (Metrorailguy).
The remaining 181-km stretch under Phase-II between Shirdi and Mumbai, will end in Thane’s Vadpe area in the Bhiwandi district, and will be ready by 2024.
The expressway connects 10 districts of the state, namely, Nagpur, Wardha, Amravati, Washim, Buldhana, Jalna, Aurangabad, Nashik, Ahmednagar and Thane.
The project is the brainchild of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and was conceptualised when he was the chief minister in 2015.
At present, commuters use NH-3 (Mumbai-Dhule) and NH-6 (Dhule-Nagpur) to reach Nagpur, covering a 839 km distance which takes at least 17 hours. The greenfield expressway, once completed, will reduce the travel time between Nagpur and Mumbai to eight hours.
Up till January 2023, about 90 per cent of work is completed on the eight-lane expressway.
Decks have been cleared for establishing the Sabarimala greenfield airport at Erumely, as the project proposal has received approval from the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation.
The approval from the centre came after it reviewed the techno-economic feasibility study report presented by the state government.
The airport once completed is expected to benefit pilgrims travelling to the Lord Ayyappa Shrine at Sabarimala and also to the popular pilgrimage centre of Maramon.
Three Years In Pipeline
In June 2020, the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) had submitted a proposal under Greenfield Airports (GFA) Policy to the ministry for grant of site clearance for development of the Sabarimala airport in the state.
The KSIDC’s proposal was considered in consultation with the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Ministry of Defence (MoD) and KSIDC, as per GFA Policy.
“Based on the observations of AAI and DGCA, KSIDC was requested to submit a Techno-Economic Feasibility Study (TEFS) Report. The Final TEFS report was submitted by KSIDC in June 2022 and the same was shared with AAI and DGCA,” Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh had said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha in Feb 2023.
According to the minister, the proposal was later placed before the 32nd Steering Committee on greenfield airports for consideration of grant of site clearance on 22 November 2022.
The site clearance follows satisfactory replies given by the state government to queries raised by the DGCA and AAI.
Next Step
The KSIDC has initiated preliminary measures for land acquisition. Upon completing land acquisition, the detailed project report (DPR) will be prepared, followed by the setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle to execute and operate the project.
The construction work of the airport is expected to take another three to four years after all the requisite approvals are in-place.
Earlier, the state government had issued an order to acquire 1,039.87 hectares (2,570 acres) belonging to Cheruvally Estate spread over Erumely south and Manimala villages in Kanjirappally taluk.
The site clearance is a major development for the project as it certifies that the Cheruvally estate and adjacent land are suitable to construct an airport.
Presently, the social impact assessment (SIA) study for the project is in its final stage, while the environment impact assessment (EIA) is nearing completion.
The upcoming Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) has been branded as RAPIDX.
The system’s new name RAPIDX is reflected on National Capital Region Transport Corporation’s (NCRTC) website which is carrying out the RRTS project. The same was also announced via a banner on their social media accounts.
“RAPIDX, with an operational speed of 160 kmph, will put life on a fast track in NCR. The vision to connect people and places at a faster pace, is all set to realise soon,” read a message from the NCRTC.
“With high-speed high-frequency high-throughput regional connectivity across NCR, RAPIDX — India’s first Regional Rail will bring People & Places closer,” read the message.
RRTS
The RRTS is a new, rail-based, dedicated, high capacity, comfortable commuter service. With a design speed of 180 kmph and an average speed of 100 kmph, it aims to connect regional nodes in NCR.
In the first phase of the project, three corridors, namely, Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut, Delhi-SNB (Shahjahanpur-Neemrana-Behror Urban Complex)-Alwar and Delhi-Panipat are under implementation.
The 82-km long Delhi-Meerut corridor is one of the three priority corridors of Phase-1 planned in the NCR and is expected to be operational by 2025.
RRTS Route Map
In the next phase(s), five additional RAPIDX lines will be developed. These are Delhi–Faridabad–Ballabgarh-Palwal, Ghaziabad–Khurja, Delhi- Bahadurgarh-Rohtak, Ghaziabad-Hapur and Delhi-Shahdara-Baraut.
The NCRTC which works under the administrative control of Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and is executing the RRTS project is a joint venture of the Government of India (50 per cent) and state governments of Haryana (12.5 per cent), NCT Delhi (12.5 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (12.5 per cent) and Rajasthan (12.5 per cent).
The Maha Metro has already completed the trial run on this stretch and the preliminary inspection by the CMRS has also been done.
After a long wait, commuters in Pimpri-Chinchwad can finally breathe easy as the Maha Metro is gearing up to launch services on an 8-kilometre stretch from Phugewadi to Civil Court, Shivajinagar after 15 May.
This stretch of the Pune Metro project has been completed and only the final clearance from the Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) is awaited.
“The much-awaited work on Pimpri to Civil Court, Shivajinagar has finally been completed. On 6 March, last year, we had started the Pune Metro service on a seven-kilometre stretch from Pimpri or PCMC headquarters to Phugewadi. Now, we are gearing up to extend the service from Phugewadi station to Civil Court, Shivajinagar. The work of the last station in Dapodi was completed 15 days back,” Maha Metro spokesperson Hemant Sonawane told Indian Express.
The Phugewadi-Civil Court route was originally scheduled to be inaugurated in October last year, but was postponed to January on account of delays from strikes and land acquisition. Maha Metro has now slated the inauguration after 15 May.
The Maha Metro has already completed the trial run on this stretch and the preliminary inspection by the CMRS has also been done. The final inspection is expected to take place by the end of the month, after which Phugewadi-Civil Court stretch will be opened.
Pune Metro Project
Pune Metro Rail Project consists of two corridors, north-south corridor (Purple line) and east-west corridor (Aqua line), with a total length of 33.2 km and 30 stations.
The 17.5-km-long north-south (NS) corridor from PCMC to Swargate has 14 stations. It passes through the industrial area of Pimpri-Chinchwad and further into old Peth areas of the Pune city.
This corridor has an 11.4 km elevated stretch and a 6.1 km underground section between Range Hills and Swargate.
The fully elevated East-West (EW) corridor starts from Vanaz Depot in east and goes upto Ramwadi. There are a total of 16 stations on this stretch and total length of this corridor is 15.7 km.
Pune Metro has two maintenance depots for up keep of trains. The depot on NS corridor at Range Hills is named as Range Hills car depot and the depot on EW corridor at Vanaz is named as Hill View Park car depot.
Inaugurated In 2022
It was in 2022 that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the 12 km stretch on NS and EW corridors of Pune Metro.
The NS corridor is currently operational for 7 km from Pimpri (PCMC headquarters) to Phugewadi with 5 stations — PCMC, Sant Tukaram Nagar, Bhosari (Nashik Phata), Kasarwadi and Phugewadi.
Similarly, the EW corridor has an operational length of 5 km from Vanaz to Garware College with five stations — Vanaz, Anand Nagar, Ideal Colony, Nal stop and Garware.
Two New Stretches In Progress
In addition to preparing for the launch of Pune Metro service from Phugewadi to Civil Court, the Maha Metro announced that it will also be launching service from Civil Court to two other locations.
The first stretch, spanning 2.37 km, will connect Civil Court to Ruby Hall, while the second, 2.75 km stretch will connect to Garware College station, both of which fall under the PMC limits.
While the work on the first stretch has been fully completed, the final stretch from Civil Court to Garware College is expected to be finished in the coming days.
The long-awaited dream of Northern Andhra people for aerial connectivity will soon come to fruition as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy will lay the foundation for the Bhogapuram international airport on 3 May.
This was informed by the state’s Industries Minister Gudivada Amarnath, while visiting the site earmarked for the airport.
“Within 24 to 30 months after laying the foundation, the airport construction will be completed,” Amarnath was quoted as saying in a statement.
Strategic Location
The proposed greenfield airport site lies on the border of Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts, and is approximately 45 km from Visakhapatnam, through NH-5 and 25 km from Vizianagaram via NH-43.
The site is strategically located on the east coast and stands to benefit from the vast catchment area surrounding the region.
Moreover, the beach corridor development is underway, in proximity to the proposed International Airport in Bhogapuram, which will provide impetus to retail and hospitality developments in the region.
The Minister, who visited the site earmarked for the airport, said up to 2,195 acres of land out of the 2,203 acres required had been acquired and the rest would be procured soon.
PPP Mode
GMR Visakhapatnam International Airport Ltd (GVIAL), a 100 per cent subsidiary of GMR Airports Ltd (GAL), is the Concessionaire for the development and operations of Bhogapuram Airport near Visakhapatnam.
The project involves design, build, finance, construction, development, operation and maintenance of the airport for the period of 40 years, extendable by additional 20 years.
Closing Vizag Airport
The Centre had granted site clearance to the Andhra Pradesh state government in January 2016, for development of Bhogapuram Greenfield airport with a provision that scheduled commercial operations at the Civil Enclave — at the existing Vizag Naval airfield — will be stopped for a period of 30 years once the operations of Greenfield Airport at Bhogapuram starts.
Subsequently, ‘In-Principle’ approval for development of Bhogapuram airport was granted in October, 2016.
The international airport will have an investment of Rs 5,000 crore in the first phase, according to G M Rao, Chairman of the GMR Group.
The airport’s first phase would have a capacity of six million passengers, which would go up to 40 million after completion of the entire project. It will also create about one lakh direct and indirect employment.
