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Himachal Pradesh: Eight New Heliports To Come Up In 2023

By
Amit Mishra
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The Himachal Pradesh government has given clearance for setting up of eight heliports in six districts of the state this year.

Heliports will be constructed at Sasan in Hamirpur, Rakkar in Kangra, Sultanpur in Chamba, Pirdi in Kullu, Jispa, Sissu and Rangrik in tribal Lahaul-Spiti district and Sarvo in tribal Kinnaur district in the first phase.

In the second phase, there is a proposal for the construction of heliports at Nahan and Dhar Kyari in Sirmour, Chanshal Larot in Shimla, Jankaur in Una, Galanala in Solan and Pangi and Holi in Chamba.

Eight heliports to be constructed in six districts of Himachal Pradesh.

As part of the plan, old helipad at Sultanpur in Chamba district headquarters will be developed into a heliport.

While the government has selected Pirdi in Kullu district, administrative consultations are being held regarding Kullu’s Aloo Maidan as well.

Deputy commissioners have selected land for the construction of heliports in the six districts. Pawan Hans will start the consultancy work related to the heliport from the first week of March.

The Centre will allocate the budget to the state for the construction of the heliport as per prescribed parameters.  The State administration has sent ethe Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) to the Centre for getting funds.

The latest decision will lure tourists to unexplored areas, and improve air connectivity in the state.

Focus On Tribal Areas

There is a plan to build a heliport in each district, but considering the high potential of tourism in tribal areas, more than one heliport will be built in those areas.

The Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts, in their entirety, and some areas of Chamba district constitute the majority of tribal population in the state.

These are situated in the north and north-east of the Pradesh forming a contiguous belt in the far hinterland behind high mountain passes and are amongst the remotest and most inaccessible areas in the State with average altitude being 3,281 metre above the mean sea-level.

The most distinguishing mark of the tribal areas in the State is that they are very vast in area but extremely small in population with the result that per unit cost of infrastructure activity is very exorbitant, which explains why government is prioritising them.

BBMP Budget 2023-24: Major Infra Push For Bengaluru With Focus On City Plaza, Flyovers

By
Amit Mishra
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Ahead of the Assembly elections in Karnataka, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Thursday (2 March) presented its budget, with a major focus on public works in Bengaluru.

Jayaram Raipura, the BBMP’s special commissioner for Finance, presented a budget of Rs 11,157.83 crore for the year 2023-24, giving a push to development of flyovers, junctions, building grade separators, and white topping of roads.

The budget has been presented with a firm belief in the norm, “stretch your legs as much as your bed” and is aimed to bring financial discipline, self-reliance and self-sufficiency in the BBMP’s finances, he said.

Let’s take a major proposal related to infrastructure in the budget:

1. New Flyovers

  • Amidst citizens opposing flyovers, the BBMP has announced 15 flyovers and underpasses in various parts of Bengaluru.
  • This includes three flyovers from Gokula Road near Mathikere turn at Rs 40 crore, ORR-Pipeline Junction at Jalahalli at Rs 65 crore and at Sadashiva Nagar Police Station Circle at Rs 40 crore.

2. City Plaza

  • Construction of 10 new city plazas in residential areas at a total cost of Rs 50 crore
  • New zones in BBMP limits will be developed at the cost of Rs 2 crore each.

3. Traffic Decongestion

  • Widening of roads at an estimated cost of Rs 150 crore to address traffic congestion at bottleneck areas which includes development of 75 major junctions.
  • Grade separators will be built at Wilson Garden at Rs 85 crore, at Yelahanka flyover at Rs 60 crore, Hoody Junction-ITPL Big Bazaar-Hope Farm at Rs 124 crore, Minerva Junction at Rs 137 crore, and Suranjan Das Junction to Old Madras Road at Rs 104 crore.

4. Improvement of Rail Connectivity

  • An integrated over bridge would be constructed from Yeshwantpur Railway Station to New BEL Road in collaboration with Suburban Railway to provide direct connectivity to Mathikere, Sanjay Nagar and Yeshwantpur at a cost of Rs 200 crore.
  • An elevated rotary flyover and seamless connecting flyover will be constructed at a cost of Rs 345 crore to provide better connectivity to Sir M Visvesvaraya Railway Station at Baiyappanahalli.

5. Road Improvement

  • The BBMP will take up white-topping on 150 km of road at a cost of Rs 1,410 crore in 2023-24.
  • Rs 450 crore has been earmarked for comprehensive development of 350 km of arterial and sub-arterial roads on ‘Light Tender SURE’ model.
  • BBMP has earmarked Rs 20 crore for maintenance of arterial and sub-arterial roads, and roads constructed under TenderSURE and Smart City schemes.
  • A sum of Rs 300 crore has been earmarked for reconstruction of the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board-excavated roads in 110 village.

Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor: PNC Infratech Wins Contract To Build 26-Km Stretch Between Dhulawat And New Patli Station

By
Amit Mishra
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0

Infrastructure company PNC Infratech has bagged the contract to construct the 25.92 km Package C-23 of the 121.74 km Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor (HORC) project.

This section of Haryana’s first semi high-speed rail line will connect Dhulawat (south of Sohna) and New Patli Station on an at-grade alignment.

Besides minor bridges and station civil work on the main-line, the scope of the work also includes construction of rail links from New Patli Station to the Indian Railways’ existing Patli and Sultanpur stations.

Haryana Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (HRIDC) which is the implementing agency for the project had invited tenders for construction of C-23 package in November 2022 with an undisclosed estimate.

The technical bids opened in January revealed seven bidders in fray — Afcons Infrastructure, Gawar Construction, GR Infraprojects (GRIL), Larsen & Toubro (L&T), PNC Infratech Ltd and two state-run PSUs – IRCON International and Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL).

PNC Infratech was declared as the lowest bidder with a bid cost of Rs 771.46 crore — notably Afcons Infrastructure got disqualified during financial evaluation of the qualified bidders.

The Project is to be constructed in 30 months.

Decongesting NCR

HORC is a new electrified double broad-gauge (BG) rail line connecting Harsana Kalan (Sonipat) and Asaoti (Palwal) in Haryana through 17 stations along the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP)/Western Peripheral Expressway.

HORC Project Alignment

The Orbital Rail Corridor is a crucial infrastructure project to decongest existing IR network in the National Capital Region (NCR) area. The project will decongest Delhi by diverting passenger and freight traffic not originated or destined for Delhi.

The foundation stone of the project was laid on 27 October 2022 by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and is expected to be ready by FY 2025-26.

One Contract Awarded

HRIDC has so far awarded only one major civil contract.

The contract to construct the 5.9 km C1 Priority (Manesar-Patli Station) section of the project was awarded to KCC Buildcon in May 2022 which won the project with a bid of Rs 158.16 crore.

Earlier this month, the HRIDC received six bids for Package C4 which includes constructing 4.7 km twin tunnels across Aravallis near Sohna using New Austrian tunnelling method (NATM).

Decongesting Delhi: Ashram Flyover Extension To Open On 06 March

By
Amit Mishra
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0

Commuters can breathe a sigh of relief as the Ashram flyover is scheduled to be opened on Monday, offering a major respite.

In a press conference, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that the inauguration ceremony would take place on 06 March. He clarified that the delay was not caused by the arrest of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia but due to some work-related issues.

According to officials, the flyover was supposed to be inaugurated by Kejriwal and Sisodia on 28 February.

Constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 128 crore, this six-lane flyover will provide a signal-free route till Noida to the commuters passing from the busy Ashram intersection.

The flyover will cut down the travel time between Delhi and Noida by 25 minutes and eliminate traffic signals, making commuting smoother.

The plan to decongest three main intersections – Maharani Bagh intersection, Ring Road-DND junction and Ring Road loop towards Sarai Kale Khan – was passed by the apex infrastructure body, UTTIPEC, in 2017.

The project stretch from the Ashram flyover to DND Flyway is part of Ring Road, a signal-free arterial road.

The extension work began in 2020 with a projected completion date of one year. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown caused a shortage of workers, leading to initial delays, and the deadline was eventually pushed further. While the government had previously aimed to finish the project by November 2022, the PWD was unable to meet this deadline.

For connecting the elevated stretch to the existing flyover, the Public Works Department (PWD) had closed the flyover, which sees around 3 lakh vehicles pass through it per day, for about 45 days on 02 January this year.

Alstom Transport Bags Rs 220 Crore Signalling System Contract For Delhi Metro’s Silver Line Project

By
Amit Mishra
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0

Delhi Metro Rail has awarded the signalling contract for the Silver Line to Alstom Transport India at a value of Rs 219.59 crore, The Metro Rail Guy reported.

The 23.622 km Silver Line will connect Delhi Aerocity and Tughlakabad in South Delhi via 16 stations.

Alignment of Silver Line

The under-construction underground line is part of the 65.1 km Delhi Metro Phase 4 project.

The contractor will have to design, manufacture, supply, install, test and commission the signalling and train control system.

The Aerocity-Tughalakabad corridor will be equipped with Alstom’s communications based train control (CBTC) system and run in conjunction with i-ATS (jointly developed by DMRC and BEL) in parallel with its automatic train supervision (ATS) system.

Alstom has also been awarded Silver Line’s rolling stock supply contract in October 2022 as part of a larger 312 metro car contract for Phase IV expansion.

As part of the order, the French major will design and manufacture 78 standard gauge metro cars for the Silver Line and will maintain them for 15 years.

Hyderabad Airport Metro: Survey Completed, Ground Work Starts With Peg Markings Along 31 Km Long Corridor

By
Amit Mishra
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0

The survey work to fine-tune the metro alignment and station locations for Hyderabad Airport Metro has been completed.

This was announced on Tuesday (28 February) by N V S Reddy, managing director of the Hyderabad Airport Metro (HAML) — a Special Purpose Vehicle to develop and operate the metro line.

The agency has now taken up the peg marking work for the 31-km long Metro, which will connect the IT hub in western Hyderabad and Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad in southern Hyderabad.

The survey has been carried out by using a satellite-based Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) and the Electronic Total Station with built-in programs for more accuracy and capturing of accurate coordinates.

It is a part of the pre-construction activities taken up in parallel processing mode to expedite the grounding of airport metro work.

Connecting Airport With IT Hub

The airport corridor will connect Mindspace junction near Raidurg Metro station and the city’s international airport located at Shamshabad after traversing along the Outer Ring Road (ORR) of the city.

Estimated to cost Rs 6,250 crore, the project is fully funded by the state government.

The foundation stone for the project was laid by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on 9 December last year.

Alignment of Hyderabad’s Airport Metro Line, in brown colour (HMRL)

The metro is expected to take just 20 minutes to connect the airport to the main city. Biodiversity junction, Nanakramguda, Narsingi, TS Police Academy, Rajendranagar, Shamshabad, Airport Cargo station and terminal are expected to be a few of the stations.

The project also called ‘Airport Express Metro Corridor’ would essentially be elevated but 2.5 km of the total stretch will be underground.

Peg Work

Peg Marking involves transferring the alignment onto the ground. This will facilitate preliminary works such as marking of Airport Metro pier (pillar) locations on the ground and taking up soil testing for determining the soil bearing capacity, designing of piers etc.

HAML MD said that besides traditional engineering peg marks on the road, aluminium boards with a retro-reflective sheet for visibility at night are also being embedded in the central median.

These boards will indicate the chainage that is the distance of that particular point from the starting point of Airport Metro.

While smaller-sized boards are being placed at every 100 metre as 0.1 km, 0.2 km etc, slightly bigger boards are being kept at every half a kilometre. The boards are placed in the central median from Raidurg to Biodiversity Junction; and from IT Towers on Khajaguda Road to Nanakramguda Junction where the central median is available, the MD said.

From Nanakramguda Junction to TSPA Junction, they are being fixed on the footpath side as the service road on the city side of the outer ring road (ORR) is under expansion and as of now, there is no central median in this stretch.

However, Airport metro pillars will be located in the central median of the expanded service road between Nanakramguda junction and TSPA Junction along the ORR, Reddy added.

Madhya Pradesh: Indore to Get State’s First Multi-Modal Logistics Park; Phase 1 By 2025

By
Amit Mishra
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0

Construction engineering company G R Infraprojects has won the rights to construct the first Multi-Modal Logistics Park (MMLP) of Madhya Pradesh.

MMLP at Indore is being developed in an area of 255.17 acre near Pithampur in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh.

The project will be implemented on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis wherein the concessionaire will develop and operate the MMLP at an estimated cost of Rs 1,110.58 crore.

Under the terms of the contract, the developer will complete the project within two years from the appointed date and will operate the MMLP for 45 years.

Earlier, in September last year, the National Highways Logistics Management Limited (NHLML) had invited bids for the project. The financial bids were opened on 24 February 2023.

The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) is developing 35 MMLPs at some of the highest freight movement regions in the country under the first phase of Bharatmala Pariyojana.

Why Indore?

Indore is known as the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh and is located at the crossroads of western and central India with good connectivity.

The city has been the hub of trade and commerce for western India, with a strong presence of industries such as iron and steel, chemicals and machinery and high-quality workforce.

Location of MMLP Indore

The site is strategically located near Pithampur industrial area, apparel and charma cluster and abutting the Indore Tihi-Dahod rail line as well as proposed Mhow ring road, at 30 km from Indore Airport and Indore city.

SPV Formed

A government SPV is being formed amongst NHLML, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) and Madhya Pradesh Industrial Development Corporation (MPIDC) for the development of the logistics park.

The SPV will provide land for the MMLP, external rail, road connectivity as well as water and power supply. The MMLP is being provided a with four-lane access from Mhow-Neemach four lane state highway and 6.5 km long rail siding from Sagore Railway Station.

Phase-Wise Development

The MMLP will be developed in three phases — Phase I is targeted to be completed in two years, that is, by 2025, leading to commercial operations.

The MMLP will cater to 12.79 million metric tonne (MMT) cargo in the horizon period of 45 years and will give huge boost to the industrial zones in the catchment region such as Indore, Ujjain, Dewas, Dhar, Pithampur, Khandwa and Barwani.

This state-of-the-art logistics park will fulfill most of its energy requirement through ‘green energy’ and is expected to generate 10,000 jobs.

Reducing Logistics Cost

MMLP is an integrated facility within which all activities relating to logistics and the distribution of goods, both for national and international transit can be carried out across multiple modes of transport.

These mega establishments are targeted to reduce logistics costs to 8-9 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

Currently, logistics account for 14 per cent of GDP — making India far less competitive on the global stage.

Catering to 50 per cent of nation’s road freight movement, the MMLPs will maximise efficiency of goods movements across the country.

The NHLML, which is a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is the nodal agency for implementing the MMLP projects. The foundation stone of the country’s first MMLP at Jogighopa in Assam was laid in October 2020 and is slated to be completed by 2023.

The MMLPs equipped with inter-modal facilities for freight handling, warehouses, cold storages, custom bonded area will provide one stop solution and reduce transportation costs, inventory handling costs and substantially resolve inefficiencies present in the logistics ecosystem.

Linking Tourism And History: Work On Six New Ropeways To Commence In South Bihar

By
Amit Mishra
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0

Work is likely to begin soon on six ropeways at different places in Bihar, including three at Gaya and one each at Jehanabad, Kaimur and Rohtas.

This was announced by Bihar Finance Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary on 28 February while tabling the Budget for fiscal year 2023-24.

These ropeway projects include Rohtasgarh Fort in Rohtas, Mundeshwari Hills in Kaimur and Banawar Hills in Jehanabad district.

Gaya district, on the other hand, will get three ropeways at Pretshila Hills, Dungeshwari Hills and Brahmayoni Hills.

Most religious places in Bihar are located in mountainous regions and the best way to reach them is through ropeways. As such the government has proposed to construct these six ropeways linking major religious places in south Bihar.

The Rohtasgarh ropeway will provide connectivity to Rohtasgarh fort; one of the largest forts in the world, spread over a radius of 26 miles. Since ancient times, there have been only four routes in all four directions to reach Rohtas hill, which are called Ghats.

The Mundeshwari Temple dedicated to Maa Durga and Lord Shiva is situated at a height of 608 feet on Kaimur hill and is believed to be from the Kushan period.

Three new ropeways in Gaya would ease the difficulty of travelling for international tourists and attract domestic tourists who visit famous shrines considered holy among the Hindus, the Buddhists and the Jains.

Two Existing Ropeways

The State has currently two such facilities – Mandar Ropeway and Rajgir Ropeway.

A beautiful city positioned in the Nalanda district, Rajgir entices the attention of the tourists from all over the globe. The place is enveloped by rocky hillocks and is placed in a valley and is home to various Hindu temples and monasteries.

The Ropeway at Rajgir takes one uphill to the Shanti Stupa and Monasteries built by the Japanese Devotees on top of the Ratnagiri hills.

The Mandar ropeway at Mandar hills in Banka district was inaugurated in September 2021. It has been developed by the state tourism for worth over Rs 9 crore.

The travel length of the Mandar ropeway is 377.36 metre and it can cover the distance from the station at the base to the top of the hill within four minutes approximately.

UP Budget 2023: Noida International Airport Set to Be India’s Largest, To Have Five Runways Instead Of Two

By
Amit Mishra
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0

The upcoming Noida International Airport (NIA) at Jewar in Uttar Pradesh will have five runways instead of two.

The announcement was made by the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister, Suresh Khanna, this week while presenting the state budget for fiscal year 2023-24 under CM Yogi Adityanath’s second term.

Phase-wise Expansion

The airport, billed to be India’s largest upon completion, will be developed in four phases, with two interconnected terminals and an annual passenger capacity of 70 million.

The first phase spread over 1,334 hectare will have one runway, cargo hub along with a terminal that will cater to domestic and international passengers. As per the concession agreement, the first phase for 12 million passengers per annum is to be completed and made operational by September 2024.

The first expansion of the airport – construction of the second runway and the terminal building – will start once it reaches 80 per cent of the 12 million passengers per year capacity.

Similarly, the development of the third, fourth and fifth runways will begin when footfall increases from 12 million to 30 million, 50 million and 70 million.

25 Per Cent Work Completed

The work on the first phase of the Noida Airport is complete by nearly 25 per cent.

Tata Projects, which is the contractor for the project has been carrying out the construction of the terminal building, runway and air traffic control (ATC) in full swing. At present, the concreting work of the terminal piers is continuing, even as the land for the runway is being levelled.

The second phase of the NIA is planned in an area of 1,365 hectare, for which the survey work is currently being undertaken across six villages – Ranhera, Kureb, Dayanatpur, Karauli Bangar, Mundrah, and Birampur in Greater Noida.

Also land acquisition for the third runway will begin as the proposal has been approved by the state Cabinet. Close to 1,335 hectare of land will be required for the project. Later, 2,053 hectare will be needed for the fourth and fifth runways.

The Jewar airport is understood to be the “most important” project of the state government and is being personally monitored by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Adityanath, during his inspection of the airport site in September 2022 had asked the project developers to speed up the airport work, by increasing the number of staff and machines, so that the project is completed by early 2024 and the first flight scheduled for September 2024 takes off on time.

The greenfield airport at Jewar will enhance domestic as well as international connectivity to and from Delhi-NCR, Noida and Western Uttar Pradesh.

Good Policy, Sound Implementation: Karnataka, Gujarat, Top States To Make Progress Towards Clean Electricity Transition, Says Report

By
Amit Mishra
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0

Karnataka and Gujarat are making the most progress in overall preparedness and commitment in the transition to clean electricity, a new joint report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and Ember shows.

The report analyses 16 Indian states, which together account for 90 per cent of the country’s annual power requirement, across four dimensions.

The dimensions track a State’s preparedness to shift away from fossil-fuel-based power, its ability to incentivise greener market participation, its power system’s reliability and its policies pushing for power sector decarbonisation.

Based on this analysis, the report authors devised the States’ Electricity Transition (SET) scoring system, which measures the performance of the different states in the transition to clean electricity.

Electricity Transition

The report defines electricity transition as the “shift from fossil-based power production and consumption to renewable energy sources by transforming the electricity sector through innovative policies, efficient technologies, and greener market pulls while ensuring reliable supply with effective closed-loop systems in place”.

An effective clean electricity transition requires a timely switch towards a clean power-fueled, economically feasible, politically viable and secure system that can create value for business and society.

India has taken centre stage with its ambitious clean energy targets, supportive policies and regulations, political commitments, and impact-driven initiatives, says the study.

Key Findings

The figure below summarises where the states stand regarding their progress across different parameters and dimensions of this transition.

While Karnataka and Gujarat are the top performers, Haryana and Punjab are best positioned to further this transition.

The study says that Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal “must ramp up efforts to maximise their renewable energy generation potential and increase clean electricity transition commitments.”

Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu have started their clean electricity transitions, but progress has not been consistent across all dimensions.

As the long-considered front-runners in building new renewable capacity, these two States, unsurprisingly, showed promising progress in decarbonising their power systems. Still, they fell short in their respective power sectors’ relative performance and readiness to transition to clean electricity, the study says.

Karnataka

A number of factors have helped the state steal a march over other states, some of which are listed below

  • Karnataka has been an early adopter of renewable energy through proactive policies and has the highest share of renewables in its power supply mix (48 per cent). Interestingly, the state still has a large amount of untapped renewable energy potential, having installed just 11 per cent of its total potential.
  • Karnataka is also one of the few states which surpassed its renewable energy targets set for the end of 2022 (14.8GW).
  • First southern state in India to notify a renewable energy policy in 2009. Recently, the state released the Karnataka Renewable Energy Policy 2022-2027 to integrate more renewable energy into the grid
  • Able to supply electricity to meet almost all its power requirements in FY2022, with a shortage of just 9MUs against the total annual power requirement of 72,692MUs.

Gujarat

Gujarat, a state widely regarded as a renewable energy success story in India in recent years, is slowly catching up onto Karnataka.

  • Relatively lower fraction of renewable energy potential tapped in the state (10 per cent) combined with a considerable proportion of older coal power plants in its coal fleet (19 per cent) has lowered the state score.
  • Gujarat has fared the best in moving early on pilot projects related to battery storage capacity. The state currently has the most battery storage projects in the pipeline with these projects.

Phasing Out Coal

Significantly, both the states have announced that they will not build new coal power plants and also do not have any coal power plants currently under construction. G

Gujarat has about 0.85GW of new coal power projects in the pre-construction stages, and Karnataka has about 1.6GW.

While much of this pipeline in Gujarat is a state-sector undertaking to expand the Ukai thermal power plant, in Karnataka, it is a private-sector undertaking to develop the Udupi power station.

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