The Shipping Minister informed the Members that during April-February, 2011-12, Ennore Port recorded highest growth in traffic at 47%. Cochin Port stood second at 13.7% followed by VO Chidambarnar Port at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu at 13.2%. He said, amongst the major Ports, Kandla Port handled the maximum cargo of 75.4 million tones with a share of 14.8% in total cargo handled at major ports followed by Visakhapatnam with a share 12.2% and JNPT with a share of 11.8% which stood second and third respectively.

Shri Vasan informed the meeting that around 95% of India’s foreign trade by volume and 70% by value is transported through sea. He said 12 Major Ports account for 75% of the total cargo by volume handled at Indian Ports. The volume of cargo traffic handled by Ports is mainly shaped by the levels and changes in both global and domestic activities.

Cargo traffic in iron ore (mainly export) in particular was adversely affected during April-February, 2011-12 and dropped by 28.6 per cent. In terms of composition of cargo traffic handled at major ports, the largest commodity group (with share in percent in total cargo handled) was POL (32.0%) followed by Container traffic (21.4%), other cargo (17.8%), Coal (14.0%), Iron ore (11.0%) and Fertilizer & FRM (3.8%). Major ports which recorded negative growth in traffic during April-February 2011-12 were: Mormugao (20.0%), Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) (9.5%), Chennai Port (7.8%), Kolkata Dock System (KDS) (3.8%) and Paradip (1.6%).

The Members of Parliament participating in the discussion while appreciating the efforts of the Ministry of Shipping in the handling of major ports in the country gave various suggestions for improving the working of these ports. There was a suggestion for urgently filling up the Class III and Class IV vacancies in various ports in the country. One Member suggested that various Ports should take adequate pollution control measures. Another Member was of the view that security of Indian shipping personnel in International waters should be of utmost priority. There was a suggestion for proper Disaster Management Policy also. While thanking the Members for their valuable suggestions for the development of the maritime sector, Shri Vasan said that these suggestions would guide the Ministry of Shipping in optimising the cargo mix at our ports

Mr. Nath stressed upon the need of the elected representatives to play a pro active role to meet the challenges of urbanisation in their respective towns and cities. He requested the elected representatives to address the issue of financial sustainability of the local bodies since the lack of financial sustainability severely hinders their activity. Towards this end Mr Nath supported the view of the representatives that the State Governments should be encouraged to transfer the public land in the smaller towns to the ULBs. This would enable the ULBs to generate a steady source of revenue for implementing and maintaining the projects.

Mr Nath stated that the Government is considering allocation of 0.25 % of GDP, i.e Rs 175,000 crore for the next phase of JnNURM. He urged the urban local bodies to adopt reforms such as charging for services, without which minimum levels of service provision will not be possible. While doing so he acknowledged that the special needs of the urban poor need to be kept in mind.

The discussions covered issues such as devolution of funds, functions and functionaries to the urban local bodies. The elected representatives raised many issues including the need to take up road projects, need for direct transfer of funds from the Government of India to the ULBs, need for building an escalation clause to bridge the resource gap due to delays in project approval, one time untied funds etc.

The meeting was called by the Ministry of Urban Development to have a comprehensive consultation with the elected representatives in order to ascertain their views on various urban challenges being faced by the country and to factor in ground realities while framing the JnNURM Phase – II.

The representatives were given a comprehensive overview of various initiatives to the GOI such as Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, National Urban Transport Policy, National Urban Sanitation Policy, Service Level Benchmarking etc.

Ch Ajit Singh, the Union Minister of Civil Aviation has earlier reviewed the utilization of traffic rights under Bilaterals and has decided to allow the Indian Scheduled Carriers including Air India to utilize the Bilaterals till such time they reach the maximum permissible limit under Air Service Agreements (ASAs). While finalizing the Guidelines to ensure optimum utilization of Traffic Rights, it was agreed that Air India’s operational plan would receive due consideration in allocation of the traffic rights and entitlements.

With this, the Services of Air India (AI) and Air India Express (AIE) will increase from 430 services per week during winter 2011 to 471 services per week in summer 2012. These services will include increase of services from 94 to 109 on the Dubai sector, from 39 to 47 in Abu Dhabi sector, from 33 to 49 services in Sharjah sector, from 12 to 21 services in Doha sector and from 42 to 48 services in Saudi Arabia sector. The services of Air India and Air India Express will further increase from 471 services per week in summer 2012 to 577 in winter 2012.

Similarly other Indian schedule airlines have been allocated seats under bilateral agreement to fly on various international routes in summer and winter 2012. Spice Jet will run 98 services per week in summer and additional 90 services per week in winter meaning thereby an addition of 188 services per week in winter 2012. Similarly jet airways has been allocated 102 services per week in summer and additional 98 services per week in winter meaning thereby an addition of 200 services per week in winter 2012 and Indigo has got 84 services per week in summer and 41 services per week in winter totaling to 125 services per week in winter 2012. The private carriers have thus been now allocated a total of 513 services in addition to their existing allocation.

This is a major step taken by Ch. Ajit Singh, the Union Civil Aviation Minister to ameliorate the already stressed sector and to make air travel more affordable to people.

The delays have occurred due to various reasons such as delay in land acquisition, shifting of utilities, obtaining environment, forest clearances and railway approvals, poor performance of contractors and law & order problems in some States.

The steps taken by the Government to minimize the delays in completion of all its projects include setting up of Regional Offices by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) headed by Chief General Managers with adequate delegation of powers, setting up of special land acquisition units, setting up of High Powered Committees under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretaries of State Governments to resolve the bottlenecks relating to shifting of utilities, land acquisition issues, etc. Further, the delayed projects are closely monitored and periodically reviewed at the Headquarter as well as in the field units for expeditious completion.

This information was given by the Minister of State of Road Transport and Highways, Shri Jitin Prasada, in a written reply in Rajya Sabha

An amount of Rs. 1500 crore has been approved by the Government during the 11th Five Year Plan for the connectivity. An amount of Rs. 872,95,19,701/- has already been spent so far for providing connectivity to University/Colleges. By obtaining synergy between NMEICT and NKN, a lot of cost reduction and bandwidth enhancement has taken place for the universities.

This information was given by Dr. D. Purandeswari , Minister of State for Human Resource Development in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha

Ch. Ajit Singh, the Minister of Civil Aviation informed Lok Sabha today in a written reply that the air traffic has witnessed a growth of 16.5 per cent in India during 2004-05 to 2010-11 with domestic traffic clocking a cumulative annual growth rate of 18.5 per cent and international traffic at 14 per cent in the said period. Total flights/week on domestic network has been increased from 8724 in year 2006 to 12107 in year 2011. The number of airports operating Scheduled Air Services have increased from 50 in year 2000 to 82 in 2011. Total domestic passengers carried by all Scheduled and Non-Scheduled operators have increased from 362.37 lakhs in 2006-07 to 606.63 lakhs in 2011 (upto January 2011 to December 2011).

This has happened with reduction in airfares over the last seven years and introduction of new routes, which made air travel affordable for the common man.

The Minister further informed that the operations in domestic sector have been deregulated and flights are being operated by concerned airlines on the basis of commercial viability subject to adherence of Route Dispersal Guidelines. Government has laid down Route Dispersal Guidelines with a view to achieving better regulation of air transport services taking into account the need for air transport services of different regions of the country including North-East region. It is, however, up to the airlines to provide air services to specific places depending upon the traffic demand and commercial viability while complying with Route Dispersal Guidelines.

Ch. Singh said in his reply that Government has already introduced a category of Regional Airlines. A Civil Aviation Requirements Section 3, Serios ‘C’, Part VIII has already been issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in this regard, which is available on the website of DGCA. M/s Freedom Aviation, M/s Indus Airways, M/s Religare Aviation, M/s Air Pegasus, M/s ABC Training & Aviation Pvt. Ltd., M/s LEPL Projects Ltd., M/s Deccan Charters Ltd. And M/s Karina Airlines International Ltd have been granted initial No Objection Certificate to operate Scheduled Air Transport Regional Services in different regions of the country, the Minister informed.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha today she said, city/town –wise details of funds allocated during each of the last three years and the funds released so far to the State of Assam under ISHDP are as below:

(Rs. Crore)

Click here to see Annexure.

The state – wise and category – wise electricity generation in the country during 2011-12 (upto February, 2012) is given at Annex-I.

The energy requirement, availability and shortage in the country during April, 2011 to February, 2012 are given below:

The details of State-wise requirement of electricity and shortfall during the current year 2011-12 (upto February, 2012) are enclosed at Annex-II.

No specific request has been received from the Government of Madhya Pradesh recently for eliminating gap between requirement of electricity and its generation and to provide electricity to the State by generating it at a rapid pace. Electricity being a concurrent subject, supply and distribution of power comes under the preview of the concerned State Government. There has been a significant acceleration in the pace of generating capacity addition during the 11^th Plan. A capacity addition of 51,302 MW has taken place up to 9^th March, 2012 as compared to 21,180 MW added during the 10^th Plan (2002-07).  As per the report of Working Group on Power for 12^th Plan, capacity addition requirement during 12^th Plan is about 76,000 MW on all India basis.

The above information was given by Minister of State for Power Shri K.C.Venugopal in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

ANNEX-I

ANNEX-II

***

Various steps taken by Government to enhance the generation capacity addition in the country are as follows:

i. Review of progress of power projects is being done at the highest level by Union Power Minister, Secretary, Ministry of Power and Chairperson, Central Electricity Authority, to identify the constraint areas and facilitate their faster resolution.

ii. Regular reviews are held at various levels including Ministry of Power, Ministry of Heavy Industries, Ministry of Coal, Planning Commission and Cabinet Secretariat to identify the constraint areas and facilitate faster resolution of inter-ministerial and other outstanding issues.

iii. An Advisory Group has been set up under the Chairmanship of Union Power Minister with former Secretaries of Ministry of Power, former Secretary of Ministry of Coal and Industry representatives to advise for expeditious completion of ongoing power generation projects and other issues facing power sector.

iv. A Task Force on Hydro Project development, has been constituted to look into all issues relating to development of hydropower including issues of Rehabilitation and Resettlement of project affected persons. The Task Force is headed by the Minister of Power.

v. An Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) has been constituted (vide Ministry of Water Resources O.M. dated 7th August, 2009) to evolve a suitable framework to guide and accelerate the development of Hydropower in the North-East.

vi. Number of joint ventures have been/are being set up in the country for manufacturing of supercritical steam generators and turbine generators in the country and to ensure that there is no shortage of power equipment in the country.

vii. Efforts are being made at Ministerial level to make available coal for the power sector. Utilities have been advised to import coal to meet their shortfall. Power producers have also been advised to design boilers for higher level of imported coal blending.

This information was given by Minister of State for Power Shri K.C.Venugopal in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha

1. Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad – The prefeasibility study has been completed

2. Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar – The technical evaluation of the offers has been completed and financial bid is under finalization.

3. Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna – The study is in progress. Consultant has submitted Inception Report, Interim Report No. I and II and Draft Final Report to the Ministry.

4. Howrah-Haldia – The study is in progress. Consultant has submitted Inception Report, Interim Report No. I & II and Draft Final Report to Ministry.

5. Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijaywada-Chennai – Consultant has been engaged and study is in progress.

6. Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulam-Thiruvananthapuram – Technical bids have been evaluated and financial bids are under evaluation. India will need technical and financial cooperation from countries which are already operating High Speed systems, including Japan.

The draft bill for the formation of National High Speed Rail Authority (NHSRA) has already been moved for approval of the Government.

National High Speed Rail Authority will initiate steps for pre-construction activities. No time-frame has been set for it.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri K. H. Muniyappa in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha

The Survey has pointed out that the performance of broad sectors and sub sectors in key infrastructure areas in the current year presents a mixed picture. There was improvement in growth in power, petroleum refinery, cement, railway freight traffic, passenger handled at domestic terminals and upgradation of NHAI. Coal, Natural Gas, Fertilizers, handling of Export Cargo at airports and number of cell phone connections show negative growth. Steel sector witnessed moderation in growth.

According to the Survey, the performance in core and infrastructure sector is still to a large extent dependent in public sector projects the flash report for the month of October 2011 tracks the progress report of 583 projects in different sectors of which-only 7 are a head of schedule, 166 are on schedule, 235 are delayed and remaining 175 projects have been sanctioned without specifying any commissioning schedule. This has implied of cost over run of 15.3%. The Survey says that such delays increase project risk and cost, and could be minimized.

As per to the Survey, credit growth to the infrastructure sector turned negative in the current financial year. The incremental credit flow to the infrastructure sector during April-December 2011 was nearly 61% of the credit to this sector during April-December 2010. A significant reduction in credit flow was observed for the power and telecom sectors. The total FDI inflows into majors infrastructure sectors during April-December 2011 however, registered a growth of 23.6% as compared to the FDI inflows during April-December 2010. Power (43.6%), Non Conventional Energy (338 %) and Telecommunications (499%) were the preferred sectors for foreign investors. Other sectors, however, failed to share the buoyancy in FDI inflows.

The Survey has commented that in the coming years, financing of infrastructure also need to consider the plateauing of the domestic savings and macro availability of resources. There is need for introducing more innovative schemes to attract large-scale investment into infrastructure. In view of the massive requirements of funds, all efforts need to be made to attract big ticket long-term investors such as strategic investor, private equity funds, pension funds, and sovereign funds. Strengthening domestic financial institutions and development of a long-term bonds market may be critical. Besides financing, the infrastructure sector has also suffered due to a time lag in physical capacity creation and time over-run. These not only delay availability, but also raise pricing and affordability issues. Infrastructure costs as these are often non-tradable may also affect competitiveness of economy in long run. The Survey has stated that a harmonized list of main sectors and sub-sectors of infrastructure approved by the Government to serve as a guide for all agencies responsible for supporting infrastructure, is a welcome move.

Operating viability is paramount to ensure healthy inflow of private funds in future public private partnerships (PPPs), it said in representation to the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA). Airports will require an investment of Rs 67,500 crore during the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) of which Rs 50,000 crore is expected to be the share of private sector.

But Delhi airport operator is making heavy losses due to increased cost of operating a huge facility while being able to charge the tariff as per the Airports Authority of India (AAI) rate card common for all airports which is not even in line with inflation, said The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

“Even with the increase in tariff proposed by the regulator, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) is expected to face liquidity crunch in 2012-13 and 2013-14 which will jeopardise the viability of operations,” said secretary general D.S. Rawat.

More significantly, AERA’s assumption of future passenger traffic growth at 15 per cent and aircraft traffic movement at 12 per cent seems very aggressive and should be re-visited. High growth witnessed in the past ten years due to entry of low-cost carriers has now been tamed.

The number of new routes added by domestic carriers in the past three years has been substantially lower than the cumulative routes added in the past ten years, said Mr Rawat. Due to various efficiency issues, utilisation of aircraft has been low and airlines are expected to focus on this aspect before entering the next phase of fleet expansion.

“Low yields and relatively lower load factors are indicator of over-supply and cut-throat competition,” he said adding passenger traffic will grow at close to ten per cent compared to 17 per cent assumed by the AERA.

Given the risk profile of airports, a return of equity of 20 per cent plus is needed to attract investments. But aviation sector is cyclical in nature and the degree of severity or volatility in cash flows is higher. Airport risks are the highest among infrastructure sectors like power, ports and roads.

From an opportunity cost perspective, DIAL was not obliged to re-invest the deposit monies back in business as a means of project funding. Having done so, this source of finance should be treated as equity and a return equal to the return on equity determined should be allowed, said Mr Rawat.

“Investors and lenders seek a return from the day capital is deployed. However, the regulator’s philosophy is not to provide for any return in the construction period. We urge the regulator considers compensating the operator for no-return period in the tariff revision for the return period,” he said.

The total goods earnings have gone up from Rs. 50916.21 crore during 1st April 2010 – 31st January 2011 to Rs. 56247.30 crore during 1st April 2011 – 31st January 2012, registering an increase of 10.47 per cent.

The total passenger revenue earnings during first ten months of the financial year 2011-12 were Rs. 23345.48 crore compared to Rs. 21336.88 crore during the same period last year, registering an increase of 9.41 per cent.

The revenue earnings from other coaching amounted to Rs. 2353.55 crore during April 2011 – January 2012 compared to Rs. 2093.62 crore during the same period last year, an increase of 12.42 per cent.

The total approximate numbers of passengers booked during April 2011 – January 2012 were 6911.69 million compared to 6577.15 million during the same period last year, showing an increase of 5.09 per cent. In the suburban and non-suburban sectors, the numbers of passengers booked during April 2011- January 2012 were 3651.87 million and 3259.82 million compared to 3524.86 million and 3052.29 million during the same period last year, showing an increase of 3.60 per cent and 6.80 per cent respectively.

The capacity of Indian ports stood at 1 billion metric tonnes per annum in the month of January, last year. The capacity has risen to 1160 million metric tonnes as on 31.12.2011.

The recently concluded “India Maritime Week” in New Delhi provided the perfect platform for policy makers, decision makers and industry captains working across diverse spheres to share a common cause of development of the maritime sector. The Conference deliberated on a number of issues ranging from equipment for handling huge loads and capacities, leverage technologies, enterprise resource planning to the international port perspective, the inland dimension, trends and changes in global freight flows etc.

The India Maritime Week, 2012 that concluded this week, brought together national and global leaders, experts, policymakers, investors and all stakeholders in the field of maritime activity.

Yet, in India, there is no national consensus on what constitute the key elements of energy security. Does subsidising power consumption contribute to national security? Is the policy on coal mining or on hydroelectricity or on nuclear energy, or on oil and gas pricing, defined by India’s national security and national interest?

Nowhere is the absence of political consensus on policy in India as damaging to the national interest as in the case of the power sector. What is even more disturbing is the fact that even within the government, there appears to be no consensus on energy policy and security. Different ministries pull in different directions.

Mindful of this problem, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted an Energy Coordination Committee (ECC) in July 2005 to, among other things, “identify key areas requiring energy policy initiatives, so that the overall objectives of economic development, energy security and energy efficiency are met; monitor vulnerabilities that directly impinge on energy security aspects; outline the follow-up action needed for implementing identified policy initiatives; identify institutional mechanisms for implementing policies; periodically monitor key policy decisions”.

For further reading:

Power reforms’, unveiled by Mr Ahluwalia, envisaged dismantling and unbundling of State Electricity Boards (SEBs) to form several companies centred on Generation, Transmission and Distribution, and progressively privatise these unbundled organisations. This model has been a disappointing failure and the reasons identified are: ‘Single–buyer’ model; chain of monopolies; total absence of competition; non-separation of carriage & content; flawed regulatory framework, and cost plus year-to-year tariff setting.

TUNNEL VISION

‘Open access’ has been Montek Ahluwalia’s favourite panacea for all these evils, and he himself describes it: “Allowing generating companies to sell directly to distribution companies and bulk consumers, thus creating a competitive market where producers could take investment decisions based on demand, without relying on power utilities or the State Government. This would bring electricity at par with other goods and services, where competition and market forces determine efficiency levels, investments and pricing”. He had suggested that giving ‘open access’ and copious supply to miniscule bulk consumers of 1 MW and above would ‘empower’ the people and transform India’s power sector. What a ‘tunnel vision’!

For further reading:

The production of finished steel for sale in the country has been consistently higher than the real consumption of steel in the country.  However, a small quantity of import as well as export of various products of steel takes place depending upon the specific requirements of the individual companies. The quantity of import has significantly reduced by about 35.8% during April-September 2011 in comparison to the corresponding period of the previous year.

The figures of real consumption, total production for sale, import and export of finished steel during last three years and the current year are given below:-

Addressing the function, Shri Vasan said that Paradip Port successfully crossed 50 years in the promotion of Indian trade and commerce and was blessed by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who laid the foundation stone of Paradip Port on the 3rd January, 1962. This Port is the first major port on the East Coast commissioned after Independence.

Regarding the connectivity to Paradip Port Shri Vasan said that a new Haridaspur-Paradip rail link was under execution by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. which would reduce the rail route from the iron ore mines of Odisha to Paradip making the export more viable apart from reducing congestion. Paradip Port has also contributed equity for the construction of this new Railway line. On completion of the project, there will be considerable reduction of the distance from Bansapani to Paradip and the freight will be reduced by 50%.

Shri Vasan informed that the Port handled 56 million metric tonnes of traffic during 2010-11 comprising of 31.22 million tonnes of import cargo and 24.81 million tonnes of export cargo.

He further stated that the Indian Oil Corporation was establishing a Refinery of 15 MMTPA capacity and a mega Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) at Paradip. The construction of 2nd and 3rd Single Point Mooring by IOCL at an estimated cost of Rs. 1492.33 crore, with a capacity of 22 MMTPA is underway. Under private sector participation, one 12 MMTPA integrated pelletisation facility at Paradip based on its strategic locational advantage for importing coal and other raw materials, and exporting pellets through Paradip Port is also being set up.

Shri Vasan informed that the Port had embarked upon an ambitious plan to enhance its capacity to 251 MMTPA by taking up several capacity addition projects, strengthening the rail-road connectivity, and mechanizing / modernizing the existing facilities to meet the requirement of industries.

Some of the capacity addition projects under execution are deepening of channel to handle 1,25,000 DWT vessels at an estimated cost of Rs. 293.36 crore, which is expected to create a capacity addition of 5 Million Tonnes Per Annum, construction of deep draught iron ore berth and coal berth on BOT basis at an estimated cost of Rs. 1070 crore, which would add a capacity of 20 MMTPA.

Some of the major projects that have been scripted for execution in the future include construction of western dock system at an estimated cost of Rs. 2822 crore which is envisaged to create a capacity of 75 MMTPA, mechanization of east quay at an estimated cost of Rs. 917 crore, leading to a capacity addition of 14 MMTPA.

On completion of above projects, the capacity of Paradip Port would reach 251 million metric tonnes per annum by the year 2020, he added.

Shri Srikant Jena, Minister of State (I/C) for Statistics & Programme Implementation & MoS for Chemicals & Fertilizers, Secretary Shipping, Shri K. Mohandas and other dignitaries were also present on this occasion.

Scientists have found that dreaming is essential to cope with emotional stress, the Daily Mail reported.

Researchers from the University of California – Berkeley found that our brains process emotional experiences during dreams and this takes the painful edge off difficult memories.

The team studied 35 healthy young adults, divided into two groups. All of them viewed 150 emotional images, twice and 12 hours apart, while an MRI scanner measured their brain activity.

Half of the participants viewed the images in the morning and again in the evening, staying awake between the two viewings. The remaining half viewed the images in the evening and again the next morning after a full night of sleep. Those who slept in between image viewings reported a significant decrease in their emotional reaction to the images.

The MRI scans showed that sleep caused a dramatic reduction in reactivity in the amygdala, a part of the brain that processes emotions.

This allowed the brain’s rational pre-frontal cortex to regain control of the participants’ emotional reactions. The overnight recordings of the participant’s electrical brain activity showed levels of stress neurochemicals reduced while asleep.

The findings explained why people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) suffer recurring nightmares.

The researchers said the therapy element of sleep may malfunction in PTSD sufferers. Therefore, when a flashback is triggered by, say, a car backfiring, they relive the whole experience because the emotion has not been properly stripped away from the memory during sleep.

‘Dreaming is vital in softening the emotional strength of experiences, we feel better about them, we feel we can cope with them,’ said Mathew Walker, researcher who led the study.

While we spend one-third of our lives sleeping, there is no scientific consensus on the function of sleep.

• To augment the resources of the State Governments for development of infrastructure facilities for the judiciary, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) has remained in operation since 1993-94.
• Keeping in mind the inadequacy of infrastructure in subordinate courts, the allocation for the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for development of infrastructure facilities for the judiciary has been increased from Rs. 110 crore to Rs. 542.90 crore in 2011-12.
• Under the National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms, the scheme has been modified and the central share revised from 50:50 to 75:25.  The share for NE is in the ratio of 90:10 (90 being central share).
• The modified scheme covers only the District and Subordinate courts as Planning Commission has approved funding of proposals for construction of new High Court buildings with Additional Central Assistance (ACA) in the ratio of 30:70, Centre’s contribution being 30%.
• Supreme Court is also monitoring the progress of infrastructure provisioning to subordinate judiciary and monitoring committees at State and Central level have been constituted.
• A projectised approach to completion of infrastructure of subordinate judiciary would be a major programme under the Mission. States have been requested to draw up plans for construction / refurbishment with clear timelines for completion.
• A fresh assessment of requirement of infrastructure for subordinate courts revealed that funds to the tune of Rs.7,346 crore were needed.
• An amount of Rs. 542.90 crore has already been provided during 2011-12.  It is estimated that to meet the needs of the States, at least Rs. 5,000 crore needs to be provided over the next 5 years.
• Since the inception of the scheme and upto 2010-11, an amount of Rs. 1,247.36 crore has been released to the States / UTs.
• Against an outlay of Rs. 701.08 crore for the Eleventh Plan Period (2007-12), an amount of Rs. 549.01 crore has been released to the State Governments during first four years of the Eleventh Five Year Plan.
• The outlay for the scheme for 2011-12 is Rs. 542.90 crore, out of which Rs. 224.19 crore has been released so far.

That the issue of spectrum will be delinked from telecom licences and sold transparently through an e-auction is, however, a questionable move. According to the draft policy, conditions for companies to exit from service provision will be eased, making mergers and acquisitions easier. All these are laudable ideas but they have serious implications.

TARIFFS AND FREE ROAMING

When there is unfettered market competition, with nearly a dozen mobile telephony operators in every State, why should the government offer a zero price for inter-State roaming? When the mobile service was first launched in 1995, the Department of Telecom (DoT) fixed Rs 16 per minute to be paid by the caller. The called person also had to pay. This was a prohibitive price. No wonder growth was at a snail’s pace. People preferred radio paging, where the called person knew he had to call a particular number and often used the nearest phone booth to return the call.

For further reading:

Mike Branney and Richard Brown, geologists from the universities of Leicester and Durham, respectively, reconstructed the impact of a meteorite hit with the help of forensics and how it hurled debris from the crater to devastate the surrounding region.

Meteorite impacts are more common than is popularly believed — but what happens when a meteorite hits?

Researchers picked through the still intact debris to reconstruct the catastrophic events.

Branney and Brown analysed an ejected layer derived from the impact of a huge meteorite and discovered that much of the ejected debris moved across the ground as rapid, dense, ground-hugging currents of gas and debris, according to a Leicester and Durham statement.

They are remarkably similar to the awesome pyroclastic density currents (PDC, made up of superheated gas and rocks) that flow outwards from explosive volcanoes, reaching temperatures of 1,000 degrees Celsius with speeds up to 700 kmph.

Branney said: ‘In particular, the way that ash and dust stick together seems identical. Moist ash from explosive volcanoes sticks together in the atmosphere to fall out as millimetre-sized pellets.

‘These drop back into a hot pyroclastic density current. They grow into larger layered structures, known as accretionary lapilli.’

The researchers studied a finely preserved deposit in northwest Scotland from a huge impact that occurred a billion years ago.

It shows both types of these ‘volcanic’ particles – pellets and lapilli – are produced.

Being gently caressed by another person is both a physical and an emotional experience. But the way we are touched and the reaction this elicits in the brain are a science of their own.

Researchers from the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology at the University of Gothenburg have studied how the brain reacts to caresses, reports the Journal of Neuroscience.

Volunteers were given MRI scans to measure blood flows in the brain while being stroked either slowly or quickly with a soft brush, according to a Gothenburg statement.

Not unexpectedly, the brain reacted most strongly to the slow strokes. More surprising results emerged when the volunteers instead watched videos of another person being caressed.

‘The aim was to understand how the brain processes information from sensual contact, and it turned out that the brain was activated just as quickly when the volunteers got to watch someone else being caressed as when they were being caressed themselves,’ says India Morrison, study co-author.

‘Even when we are only watching sensual skin contact, we can experience its emotional meaning without actually feeling the touch directly.

‘They indicate that our brain is wired in such a way that we can feel and process other people’s sensations, which could open up new ways of studying how we create empathy,’ says Morrison.

There are several forward looking proposals contained in the draft policy document, said Mr Dilip Modi, president of The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). “If implemented in a fair, equitable and transparent manner, they hold the key to resurgence in the telecom sector.”

Mr Modi welcomed the review of legal, regulatory and licensing framework to provide for convergence, recognition of telecom as infrastructure sector, intent to address right of way issue, common guidelines for setting up of towers, promoting green technologies, domestic manufacturing and indigenous developments.

He lauded the declaration that revenue generation will be a secondary objective, the government’s intention to rationalise taxes and levies, and the declaration that in matters of security the government will try and develop a rational criteria for sharing costs beyond threshold limit.

Mr. Modi said while the Indian Telegraph Act had stood the test of time, it was undoubtedly important to have a periodic review of sector legislations. In this context, he felt that the review of the TRAI Act is both necessary and desirable as there are several long-pending disputes on the role and powers of the regulator.

Mr T.V. Ramachandran, chairman of ASSOCHAM Convergence Communications Committee, said the government’s commitment to make as much as 500 MHz spectrum available by 2020 in various IMT bands represents a vital recognition of the role of wireless in meeting national connectivity and broadband objectives, and the need for adequate spectrum to be made available for the same.

He said that in view of the proposed framework of NTP 2011, the TRAI may have to re-visit some of its earlier recommendations on spectrum management and licensing framework. Mr Ramachandran said the exit policy, M and A framework, and migration package will play an important role in settlement of current spectrum controversies. It is thus important that these issues are addressed keeping in mind the bigger picture and the government’s long-term vision of the sector.

ASSOCHAM secretary general D.S. Rawat welcomed the transparent consultation approach towards formulation of the new telecom policy. Taking benefit of the vast experience and expertise that is available with all stakeholders is bound to lead to the formulation of a robust policy that will take Indian telecom to the next level of growth, he said.

There are seven mega cities at present each with a population of 40 lakh. “There will be a huge demand for mass transit rail as each of the 13 major cities will have a population of 40 lakh by 2030,” said The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) in its recent study titled ‘Vision 2030 for Emerging Cities of India.’

The study was put together by chamber’s research and economic bureau after four months of exercise across the country.

Mumbai is likely to have 3.3 crore people by 2030, Delhi 2.6 crore, Kolkata 2.3 crore, Chennai 1.1 crore, Bangalore and Pune one crore each followed by Hyderabad 98 lakh, Ahmedabad 84 lakh, Surat 74 lakh, Jaipur 54 lakh, Nagpur 52 lakh, Kanpur and Vadodra 42 lakh each.

“Cities will account for 69 per cent of the country’s GDP in the next two decades. There will be critical political impact of this urbanisation which should be studied by all policy makers and other stakeholders.”

The total urban population is already 37.7 crore and may exceed the earlier projection of 59 crore by 2030, said the ASSOCHAM study. India’s urban sprawl is poised to become second largest in the world with more population than in many countries.

The most critical issue in times to come will be efficient transport systems to decongest burgeoning urban vehicular traffic volume. “Metro Rail has the potential to bring all-round benefits to businesses, the environment and people from all walks of life. It is evolving as an industry on its own, and creating space for new services and jobs.”

The big challenge for urban planners is to cope up with seven mega cities with 20 per cent of India’s population and demanding 40 per cent of total investments projected, according to the study. Metro Rail lines are destined to become focal point of transit growth and network infrastructure at the centre of each mega city.

“Significantly, a comparison of greenhouse emissions estimated for different types of transport modes throws up the fact that Metro Rail is the least polluting among various vehicles.”

The share of public transport at 75 per cent by 2030 will reduce fuel demand by 100 million tonnes equivalent. But investment requirements for urban transport development in 87 cities are estimated at Rs four lakh crore.

These could be rough estimates as each of the four mega cities are asking for over Rs one lakh crore for Metro Rail in coming years, said the ASSOCHAM study. Along with planning, standardisation of Metro Rail equipment will be needed so that mass production of coaches, signaling and station design could be set in motion to gain economies of scale.

So the government should move quickly to establish the Metro as the best mass transport means in urbanising India as a policy, said the ASSOCHAM study.

“This will mean planning for Metros in all major cities having a population of above 40 lakh, the projections of Metro construction, facilitation of mass transport to create demand for more industries to serve this demand, many new services to be provided in Metro premises and through its network of satellite bus services.”

NHDP is being implemented mainly through the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) which has been structuring and awarding PPP projects based on standard documents such as Model Request for Qualification (RFQ) and Model Request for Proposal (RFP) have also been adopted for enabling a transparent and fair selection process.

The National Highways (NH), with a total length of 70.934 km, serve as the arterial network of the country. Much of this network has suffered from prolonged neglect and requires significant augmentation through widening and up gradation. The Government has set an ambitious target of upgrading 20 km of National Highways per day. Forming part of the NHDP, this implies a length of 7,300 kms in a year.

To accelerate the pace of NHDP, the Union Government has entered into MOUs with some State Governments who will undertake PPP projects on behalf of the Union Government. A number of projects are in different stages of bidding and award. Based on competitive bidding, up to 40 per cent of the project cost is being provided as viability gap funding for National Highways Projects. A part of cess funds levied and collected by the Government on sale of motor fuels is being transferred to NHAI for meeting this expenditure. India infrastructure Finance Company Ltd. (IIFCL) is also providing financial assistance through long-tem debt of up to 20% of the capital costs of the projects.

During 2009-10 and 2010-11, project awards for National Highways aggregated 3,360 kms and 4,920 kms respectively. However, for achieving a construction rate of 20 km per day, it is necessary to award 7,300 kms per year. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has identified projects of about 10,000 km so as to ensure award of 7,300 km during 2011-12. Project – wise details have since been placed in the public domain.

The Committee will be headed by Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Former Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission, and assisted by Dr. N. Vedachalam of Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, Thiruvananthapuram, Prof. Sanjay Dhande, Director IIT Kanpur and Sh. G.P. Srivastava Director E&I Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Shri E. Sreedharan, Managing Director, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has kindly consented to act as the Advisor to the Committee.

Based on the accidents and their consequences witnessed in the recent past, the Committee would examine aspects connected with Signalling Systems, Rolling Stock (of all types), Fixed Structures (Tracks, Bridges and OHE), Human Resource Development with emphasis on Training, Education and Research, Need for a Third Party Audit, Organisational and structural changes in RDSO and in any other department, and improvements in procedural system and improvement in procedures and systems and any other item/modification which Committee may desire.

The Committee would lay down the road map on safety related issues which need to be addressed in the short term and the long term and would give invaluable recommendations which would have a significant bearing on further improvement in the systems and protocols. Indian Railways would make all efforts to address the recommendations of the High Level Committee with a view to achieve further improvement in the safety environment on the Indian Railways.

Safety in train operations is accorded the highest priority by Indian Railways and all measures are being taken on a continual basis to prevent accidents and enhance safety. Despite the fact that safety record of Indian Railways has shown considerable improvement progressively, with the number of train accidents decreasing from over 2000 in 1960-61 to 473 in 2000-01 and further to 141 in 2010-11, with a corresponding reduction in the accidents per million train kilometers(globally accepted index of safety) from 5.50 in 1960-61 to 0.65 in 2000-01 and further to 0.15 in 2010-11, we in the Railways are seriously concerned with any accident, particularly an accident involving loss of human lives.

The recent accident of Kalka Mail in July 2011 near Kanpur on North Central Railway involving 70 casualties and also the collision near Arakonnam on Southern Railway involving 10 causalities has necessitated a holistic assessment of further additional measures which can be adopted to further enhance the safety environment on the Indian Railways. It is pertinent to mention that 57 consequential accidents have occurred in the current financial year i.e. from 1st April to 15th September 2011 in comparison to 65 accidents in the corresponding period of the previous year, which included 23 incidents at unmanned level crossing gates in each of these two years.

As far as Indian Railways is concerned, there can be no tolerance even for a single accident involving loss of human life but the substantial growth in the passenger and freight traffic handled by the system does definitely put considerable strain on the infrastructure which needs to be addressed progressively. In the previous decade, the total number of average passenger and freight trains run daily on the Indian Railways’ system have increased by 30% from around 14,000 to almost 19,000. These include over 12,000 passenger carrying trains. The number of passengers carried have increased by almost 50% from around 4800 to 7200 million with a growth of almost 90% originating freight traffic from 473 million tonnes to 888 million tonnes. Indian Railways have in fact added over 450 trains including 325 passenger and 125 freight services in the last decade i.e. 2001-2010, to run on a daily basis as compared to only 30 daily trains added per year in the previous decade i.e. 1990-2000.

It has been Indian Railways’ constant endeavour to upgrade its infrastructure for meeting the safety requirement for handling the exponential growth of traffic. Pin pointed safety measures like up gradation of track structure, mechanized maintenance of track, improvement in welding technology, large scale track circuiting, introduction of electrical/electronic signaling systems, advanced monitoring systems such as axle counters, vigilance control devices on locomotives, improvement in rolling stock such as introduction of LHB type coaches and improvement in freight stock with air brake systems, upgraded design of locomotives, improvement of training methodology have received undivided focus and attention.

In view of the extreme demand on the Indian Railways’ system, both in respect of infrastructure as also skilled manpower directly connected with safety on the railways arising out of the aspirations of the general public and public representatives and with a view to ensure that safety is given overriding priority and no aspect connected with safety escapes attention, the need was felt for an objective assessment and validation of time tested systems and protocols in vogue on Railway system. In pursuance of these objectives, the above mentioned High Level Safety Review Committee has been constituted by the Ministry of Railways

Details of expenditure incurred by the Geological Survey of India for exploration in offshore areas is given below :-

Annexure

GSI have delineated economic mineral bearing areas within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of India including the Territorial Waters.  The findings of the surveys are given below:

• Heavy mineral sands comprising ilmenite, rutile, zircon, sillimanite, monazite and garnet found off East coast (Orissa and Andhra Pradesh).
• Similar heavy mineral sands comprising ilmenite, rutile, zircon, sillimanite, monazite and garnet have been found off West coast (Kerala –Tamil Nadu).
• Heavy mineral sands comprising ilmenite and magnetite also have been found off Ratnagiri in the West coast.
• Oolites and calcareous sands have been found in the continental shelf off Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,  Maharashtra and Gujarat coast.
• High grade of lime mud occurrences is found in water depth of 100 – 200 m off Andhra coast.
• High grade lime mud deposit found in water depth of 180 – 1200 m off Gujarat.
• Phosphatic sediment (17 – 19% P₂O₅) found in water depths of 100 – 200 m south east off Chennai.
• Phosphatic sediments (15 – 20% P₂O₅) found in water depths of 200 – 1000 m off Gujarat coast.
• Reconnaissance Survey, for identification of potential areas for Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) and occurrences of construction grade sand has been carried out off Andaman and Nicobar Islands
• Potential areas of occurrences of construction grade sand off Kerala coast have been identified.
• Occurrence of micro-manganese nodules has been identified, within a wide area west of Lakshadweep, at water depths ranging from 2800 meters to 4300 meters.  The chemical composition of these nodules are as follows: Manganese: 5% – 41%, Iron: 0.3 – 5.3%, Copper: 530 – 900 parts per million [ppm]; Lead: 230 – 1600 ppm; Zinc: 790 – 4800 ppm; Nickel: 700 – 1000 ppm; Cobalt: 80 – 300 ppm; Ferromanganese encrustations has also been located in the Andaman sea offBatti Malva.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Mines, Shri Dinsha Patel in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha

Reply further stated that the shared mobile infrastructure scheme has been launched by Universal Service Obligation Fund (USO Fund) to provided subsidy support for setting up and managing 7353 number infrastructure sites/towers (revised from 7871) in 500 districts spread over 27 States for provision of mobile services in the specified rural and remote areas, where there was no existing fixed wireless or mobile coverage. Villages or cluster of villages having population of 2000 or more and not having mobile coverage were taken into consideration for installation of the tower under this scheme including hilly, tribal and naxal affected areas. Infrastructure providers have reported that 7289 towers i.e. about 99.13 per cent have been set up as on 31.7.2011 under this scheme.

In view of large scale churn of landline connections mainly due to customer shift towards mobile, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has no major plans to install new telephone exchanges in the country. However, based on requirement, spare capacity is being redeployed from “No Demand to Demand area” by the telecom circles.

As on 31.7.2011, about 5,79,486 villages i.e. 97.62 per cent of the Census 2001 inhabited revenue villages have been covered with telephone connectivity through Village Public Telephones (VPTs). For provisioning of VPTs in remain inhabited revenue villages, the details of ongoing USOF schemes are as follows at (i) and (ii):

(i) VPTs under Bharat Nirman 
Agreements were signed with M/S BSNL in November 2004 to provide subsidy support for provision of VPTs in 62302 (revised from 66822) number of uncovered villages in the country excluding those villages having population less than 100, those lying in deep forests and those affected with insurgency. The provision of VPTs in these villages has been included as one of activities under Bharat Nirman programme. As on 31.7.2011, 62030 i.e. 99.56 per cent VPTs have been provided under this scheme.

(ii) Newly Identified VPTs 
Reconciliation of the VPTs working in the inhabited villages as per Census 2001 was carried out taking into account the existing VPT and those provided under Bharat Nirman. All the remaining 62443 inhabited villages as on 1.10.2007 as per Census 2001 irrespective of criteria of population, remoteness, accessibility and law and order situations have been included for provision of VPTs with subsidy support from USO Fund under this scheme. Agreements in this regard were signed with BSNL on 27.2.2009. As per the terms and conditions of the agreement the VPTs installed between the periods 1.10.2007 to 26.2.2009 are also eligible for subsidy support. As on 31.7.2011, 51773 VPTs out of the 62443 i.e. 82.91 per cent VPTs have been provided under this scheme.

Dr. Manmohan Singh said that financing an ambitious highways programme will no doubt require substantial resources. Some parts of the network can only be developed through public investment. There are however areas where private investment can be invited, based on affordable user charges with some capital subsidy as necessary. The Twelfth Plan strategy calls for exploring the scope for such Public Private Partnership as much as possible. I have often said Public Private Partnership is private profit in service of public at large, Shri Singh added.

The Prime Minister said that our country has been successful in attracting large volumes of private investment in this sector. Contract awards exceeded about 4,800 km in the last financial year and the Road Transport & Highways Ministry is well poised to award 7,300 km this year, to fulfill government’s resolve to build 20 km a day. The National Highways Authority, which deals with the roads that can attract private capital, has made PPP the preferred mode for most of its projects. PPP projects take much less time to complete and the Government does not have to bear cost overruns. This will not only enable us to leverage our limited public resources but also improve efficiency of service delivery.

Dr.Singh expressed his happiness that India has attained the second rank in the world among developing countries in attracting private investment for infrastructure projects and for this he complimented the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the concessionaires of the road sector for contributing a significant chunk of this investment.

The Prime Minister said that State Governments have a very crucial role to play in the road sector. While all roads, beginning from rural roads to state highways lie entirely in their domain, the support of state governments is absolutely essential for development and operation of the national highways as well. He urged the State governments to formulate their respective State Highway Development Programmes for a coordinated and time-bound development of roads in their respective States. He urged the States to work closely with the Central Government so that a modern road network can be developed in each State.

Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Dr. C.P. Joshi said that our National Highways Development Programme had grown many fold. Our Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects had attracted very strong interest from the private sector and had become a favored destination for investors – domestic and foreign alike. He said that we had taken several steps to improve the enabling environment for private participation. All our concession agreements, bid documents and specifications had been standardised. They were fair, transparent and competitive and had been received well by all the stakeholders. As a result, our PPP programme in highways is the largest in the world.

He emphasized that PPP projects were public projects where public interest must always take precedence. Shri Singh said ,“Focus was on providing high standards of service and our toll rates are among the lowest in the world. Renewed efforts had been made to increase transparency and promote competition. The success in getting robust bids had shown what good governance could do. In the first four months of the current year, PPP projects with an investment of over Rs. 21,000 crore had been awarded. The bids received were far better than the estimated bids for these projects. This would give additional revenues of more than Rs. 10,000 crore. He hoped that this trend would continue in future too.”

The Minister said that out of 71,000 kilometers, projects for about 16,000 kilometers had been completed so far and about 15,000 kilometers were in different stages of implementation and award. This leaves about 40,000 kilometers which continue to suffer from neglect. In particular, 20,000 kilometers comprise single lane roads which are mostly in the less developed regions. The Ministry has decided to develop all these roads to two-lane standards and they would be built through turnkey EPC contracts in order to ensure timely construction without cost overruns. He hoped that this programme would be taken up with full vigour under the Twelfth Plan and would make sure that the fruits of development were shared by all regions of the country.

Referring to the six-laning of the Golden Quadrilateral which connects the metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru, Dr. Joshi said that Concessions for nearly half the length had already been awarded and the balance would be awarded within the next corridors. The Ministry is in dialogue with potential investors and the concerned State Governments to find innovative ways of financing these expressways.

Dr. Joshi expressed his concern on the difficulties associated with land acquisition and hoped to resolve the issue by building consensus. He also showed his commitment to the use of IT based systems in the functioning of highways sector. He said that a number of States had adopted the PPP mode for developing their State highways and so far, 77 projects for a length of 7,801 kms had been taken up. He requested the Planning Commission to work closely with the States so that our entire road network becomes world-class.

In his address the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia drew attention of the participants to the constraints in carrying out expanded infrastructure development programme for the 12th Plan. He said that public funding would have to focus on programmes where private sector participation was unlikely. Thus to achieve goals of making one trillion investment in infrastructure during 12th Plan period, around 50% will have to come from private sector. He said that public sector funding in infrastructure will have to concentrate on N-E and PMGSY. He said that the development of infrastructure will play key role in the Nation’s effort to achieve a target of 9% growth during 12th Plan.

Shri Jitin Prasada, the Minister of State for RT&H in his address said that the investment in National Highway Development has increase manifold and private sector can also play a very important role in highways development. The Minister of State for RT&H, Dr. Tusharbhai A Chaudhary in his concluding remarks welcomed the active participation of private sector in the infrastructure development in the country.

The Conference provided a forum for sharing the knowledge and experience of the various stakeholders in the road sector with a view to improving service delivery. It deliberated on issues of critical relevance for attracting private investments in building National Highways. It also provided an opportunity to all stakeholders to gain insights into the policies and initiatives being articulated for building National Highways through PPP. This conference was of immense importance not only to the Government Departments but also to Road Development Agencies, Infrastructure Developers, Investment Banks, Private Equity Funds, Infrastructure Funds, Construction Companies, Investment Authorities and Legal/Consulting firms. A number of Central and State Ministers, top government functionaries, MD’s and CEO’s of top private sector infrastructure companies participated in it. It provided an opportunity to the private players to articulate their concerns, views and expectations directly to the policy makers and enable the Governments at the Centre and in the States to implement the necessary policy correctives.

The central theme of the Conferencewas to have an optimum level for all stakeholders by increasing private sector participation in the highways sector through attractive business opportunities for the private players, leading to accelerated economic growth of the country aided by improved infrastructure and world class highways for the citizens.

The road network of India is the second largest in the world, next to that of the United States of America. Roads have advantages over other modes of transport because they provide access to the last point of destination. In order to build world class highways in the country, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has initiated a time-bound action plan to build National Highways at a pace of 20 km per day i.e. 7300 km per year; bring all the single / intermediate lane National Highways to the minimum two lane level; and-take up a programme of 1000 km expressways.

India signed the Inter-Governmental Agreement on Asian Highway Network during the 60th Annual Session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UNESCAP), held in April, 2004.       The agreement is for coordinated development of the highway routes falling on the Asian Highway Network in each country to a minimum acceptable standard within the framework of their national programmes, envisaged in turn to develop international tourism, trade, transport and commerce.  However, no specific time frame for completion of works has been stipulated in the Agreement.

The Asian Highways (AH) 1 and AH 2 passes through the North-Eastern States of India following the National Highway stretches from the Indo-Myanmar border at Moreh in the State of Manipur via Imphal-Kohima(Nagaland)-Dimapur-Nagaon-Jorabat (Assam)-Shillong-Dawki- Tamabil upto Indo-Bangaldesh border in the State of Meghalaya having a length of about 740 km. The details of the projects included under East-West Corridor under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) and Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for the North East (SARDP-NE) on the above mentioned Asian Highway Routes, their lengths, estimated costs, present status and anticipated date of completion are annexed.  The implementation of these projects was initially affected due to delay in land acquisition, utility shifting, law and order problems, delay in obtaining forest / wild life clearances, etc. The anticipated date of completion of East-West Corridor and SARDP-NE stretches on this route are December, 2012 and March, 2015 respectively.

Apart from this, the balance lengths of about 434 km are being developed and maintained as per availability of funds, inter-se priority and traffic density.

ANNEXURE

Details of the projects undertaken under NHDP, SARDP-NE on the stretches of Asian Highways in the North East

This information was given by the Minister of State of Road Transport and Highways, Shri  Jitin Prasada  in  a written reply in Rajya  Sabha yesterday.

SK/kd/RS

(Release ID :75869)

During the month of Augut 2011, the revenue earning freight traffic carried by Indian Railways was 75.75 million tonnes. There is an increase of 1.55 million tonnes over the actual freight traffic of 74.20 million tonnes carried by the Indian Railways during the same period last year, showing an increase of 2.09 per cent.

AKS/HK/LK
(Release ID :75883)

Elaborating on the recommendations, Dr S Farooq, Chairman CII Uttarakhand State Council said that the State has achieved a remarkable growth of 12.9% per annum over 2004-05 and 2009-10 as against the national average of 8.6%. This growth has been led largely by manufacturing. The sector in the state grew at 27.5% per annum as against the national average of 9.5%. However, going forward, within manufacturing the focus will have to be on MSMEs and encouraging ancillarisation. This is necessary to be able to achieve a wider geographical spread for manufacturing. Till now most of the new units have come up in districts of Haridwar, Udhamsingh Nagar and Dehradun.

Hill Development has to be another key focus area for achieving sustainable inclusive growth. The report suggests making tourism the mainstay of hill development. Related activities like the souvenir industry, handlooms and handicrafts also need to be focused upon. MSMEs based on the local resources, for example agro based units, or units based on processing of herbs and aromatic plants should be encouraged. Service sector, specially Education sector can play a vital role in promoting Hill Development, The report suggests creation of ‘Education Hubs’, one each in Garhwal and Kumaon.

Good infrastructure, specially connectivity, is essential to support the economic activity in the hills, emphasized Dr Farooq. Good infrastructure and an investment friendly climate will also play a key role in determining what further manufacturing investment comes into the State, added Dr Farooq. Availability of skilled manpower is an important element of investment attractiveness. CII suggests setting up of skill gurkuls which are residential skill facilities for school dropouts from BPL families. Another unique characteristic of the skill gurkul model is its partnership with industry which ensure employment to the employable.

The key areas that the report focuses on include: zoning plans for districts, improving connectivity, industrial development, special tourism zones, skill gurukuls, apna – ghar: low cost housing scheme, improving urban infrastructure, hill development and environment conservation.

The report has been presented by CII to Shri Prakash Pant, Hon’ble Minister, Labour & Planning, Govt of Uttarakhand, Shri Harak Singh Rawat, Leader of Opposition, Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha, Shri Satpal Maharaj, Hon’ble MP, Lok Sabha as part of its dialogue with various political parties to share and exchange ideas for the development of the State.

Drawing attention to the initiatives which are underway to augment domestic manufacturing capacity for main plant and Balance of Plants, Shri Shinde said the manufacturing capacity of BHEL is being increased from 10,000 MW in December, 2007 to 20,000 MW by 2012. He said several new joint venture companies have been formed to manufacture supercritical boilers and turbine-generators for thermal power plants.

Stating that a significant part of the 12th Plan capacity addition is expected to come through super-critical technology, Shri Shinde informed that the Government has approved bulk tendering for 11 units of 660MW each, which is in the advanced stage of finalization while bulk tendering for nine units of 800 MW each has also been approved. Both the contracts provide for development of phased indigenous manufacturing of supercritical equipment in the country. The Minister said the UMPP initiative was launched for development of coal-based power projects of 4000 MW capacity each utilizing super critical technology. Four UMPPs have already been bid out and transferred to the identified developers and two units of Mundra UMPP of 800 MW each are expected to be commissioned in the 11th Plan itself.

Shri Shinde said the Government is taking steps for achieving much higher capacity addition in the 12th Plan. A capacity of over 80,000 MW is under construction for likely benefits during the XII Plan. He said the Planning Commission has already constituted a Working Group on power sector under the chairmanship of Secretary (Power) which is in the advanced stage of finalizing its report.

The members while appreciating the initiatives taken by the Ministry of Power called for addressing the issues such as regional imbalances in availability of power and growing demand for power.

Tsunami inundation modelling for the areas of Mandvi and Dwaraka in Gujarat is currently being done by Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management (ICMAM) Project Directorate located at Chennai, by using topographic data obtained through Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS surveys.

National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) is carrying out Airborne Laser Terrain Mapper (ALTM) survey to generate digital topographic information for the near coastal zones, for use in inundation modelling. The data acquisition so far has been completed for Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. ALTM-based digital topographic mapping has so far been completed for near coastal areas between Nagapattinam (Tamilnadu) to Puri (Orissa). The broad scientific methodologies for 3-D GIS have been established and pilot work over the Nagapattinam-Cuddalore area of Tamilnadu has been successfully. Work is under way for the remaining near coastal most vulnerable zones of the country.

Survey of India (SOI) has completed preparatory work for generating micro-scale topographic data over Gujarat completed under the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Program of the Ministry of Environment & Forests. Coastal vulnerability mapping for multi-hazards has been completed by INCOIS at macro-scale for planning purposes for entire Indian coastline including Gujarat coast.

The Ministry plans to develop micro-scale vulnerability maps for all the near coastal vulnerable areas of the country that can be used by administrators and risk managers for micro-level multi-hazard resilient development planning, ICZM, saving lives and property.

The Minister of State for Science and Technology and earth Sciences, Shri Ashwani Kumar gave this information in a written reply to a question by Dr. Kirit Premjibhai Solanki in Lok Sabha

Giving this information in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha  the Minister of State for Power Shri K.C.Venugopal said that to ensure timely commissioning of ongoing projects various steps such as rigorous monitoring at different levels including the Ministry of Power, the Central Electricity Authority, the Power Project Monitoring Panel and Advisory Group so as to resolve issues/bottlenecks faced by the developers, enhancement of main plant equipment manufacturing capacity by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, ‘Adopt an ITI’ initiative to overcome the shortage of skilled manpower, etc. have been taken up.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today she said, the five metros having largest slum population in the country as per Census 2001, are as follows:-

She said, as the Census 2011 slum figures are not available, it is not possible to indicate the growth in the slum population.

The Minister said, the existing urban planning models and urban land policies are one of the key reasons for growth of slums. The other major reasons are :-

(i)          Increased urbanization leading to pressure on the available land and infrastructure, especially for the poor.

(ii)   Natural increase in the population of urban poor and migration from rural areas and small towns to larger cities.

(iii)  Sky-rocketing land prices due to increasing demand for land and constraints on supply of land.

(iv)  Absence of programmes of affordable housing for the urban poor in most States.

(v)    Lack of availability of credit for low income housing.

(vi)   Increasing cost of construction.

Kumari Selja said, in pursuance of the Government’s vision of creating a Slum-free India, a new scheme ‘Rajiv Awas Yojana’ (RAY) has been launched on 02.06.2011 with a budget of  5,000 crores. The Scheme is expected to initially cover about 250 cities, across the entire country by the end of 12th Plan (2017). The selection of the cities will be done in consultation with the Centre. Under the Scheme, Fifty percent (50 %) of the cost of provision of basic civic and social infrastructure and amenities and of housing, including rental housing,  and transit housing for in-situ redevelopment – in slums would be borne by the Centre, including operation & maintenance of assets created under this scheme. For the North Eastern and Special Category States the share of the Centre would be 90% including the cost of land acquisition, if required.

***

As per the information available with the Department of Defence Production, no reference has been received from the Government of Gujarat for developing defence industry in that State.

As per the target set for 2011-12, the Ordnance Factories would issue arms, ammunitions and products worth Rs.11,700/- crore, while for the 9 Defence Public Sector Undertakings a target of Rs.31,590/- crore has been set for sales/value of production.

This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Shri MM Pallam Raju in a written reply to Shri Parshottam Khodabhai Rupala in Rajya Sabha

(i) Joint Operation Centers (JOC) have been set up at Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Kochi and Port Blair, jointly manned and operated by the Navy and Coast Guard.

(ii) Establishment of a National Command, Control, Communication and Intelligence Network for a real-time maritime domain awareness linking operations rooms of the Navy and Coast Guard, both at the field and the apex levels.

(iii) Action has been initiated for formation of `Sagar Prahari Bal` for the force protection duties for Indian Navy comprising of 1000 men and 80 Fast Interceptor Crafts.

(iv) Surface and air surveillance has been enhanced by Indian Navy and Coast Guard Ships and aircraft along the coast and in all offshore development areas.

(v) Coastal security Exercises are conducted regularly on the east and west coasts.

(vi) Awareness drives have been conducted by the Navy and the Coast Guard to sensitize the fishing communities on issues related to security threats from sea.

(vii) Long term measures include setting up of a Coastal Radar Station change and Auto Identification System (AIS).

(viii) Under Coastal Security Scheme steps have been taken for strengthening of Marine Police Force of coastal states and Union Territories.

Second Phase of Coastal Security Scheme is envisaged with the objective of bridging the gaps in the present Coastal Security system with a view to strengthen it further.

The Sagar Prahari Bal has been raised by the Navy for force protection, security of naval bases and co-located Vulnerable Assets (VAs) and Vulnerable Points (VPs). The sanctioned manpower of 1000 personnel is for these roles/tasks.

This information was given by Defence Minister Shri AK Antony in a written reply to Shrimati Gundu Sudharani and Shri Nand Kumar Sai in Rajya Sabha

During the last three years (2008-09 to 2010-11) and current year 2011-12 (upto17.8.2011), 26 fighter planes of the IAF crashed. The makes of these fighter planes were MiGs, Su-30 MKI and Jaguar. Six pilots were killed in these crashes.  This includes 2 MiG-21 aircrafts that crashed during take off.  Neither any pilot norservice personnel was killed in these MiG-21 accident.  Also, no civilian was killed in the MiG-21 crashes.

Compensation for loss of / damage to civilian property due to Indian Air Force Aircraft accidents is paid by the government as per extant rules.

Every IAF aircraft accident is thoroughly investigated by a Court of Inquiry (Col) to ascertain the cause of accident and remedial measures are taken accordingly to check their recurrence in future. Apart from this, IAF has taken various measures relating to invigoration of aviation safety organization, streamlining of accident/incident reporting procedure, analytical studies and quality audits of the aircraft fleets to identify vulnerable areas and institute remedial measures to reduce aircraft accidents. Ornithology cell, which carries out bird surveys at flying bases and suggests bird prevention modules, has been established at the Directorate of Flight Safety. All flying bases have been visited by senior Aviation safety personnel of the IAF to apprise and caution the operating units about the causes of the accidents and to get views towards enhancing aviation safety. Accident prevention programmes have been given an added thrust to identify risk prone/hazardous areas specific to the aircraft fleets and operational environment to ensure safe practices/procedures. Steps have also been taken by Government to train pilots to prevent accidents due to human error. These include increased use of simulators to practice procedures and emergency action, focused and realistic training with additional emphasis on the critical aspects of mission, introduction of Crew Resource Management and Operational Risk Management to enable safe mission launches, Aviation Psychology courses and introduction of Aerospace Safety capsules in the ab initiotraining of aircrew.

This information was given by Defence Minister Shri AK Antony in a written reply to  Shri K.N. Balagopal and Shri Mohan Singh in Rajya Sabha

crumbling infrastructure in Mumbai will be inadequate to bear the projected population of 3.3 crore by 2030 compared to over 2.3 crore at present.

It therefore suggested introduction of a mass transportation system to decongest roads and cope up with rapid urbanisation in and around country’s financial capital.

The transportation infrastructure in Mumbai is dismal as the city is plagued with perennial traffic problems. Besides, both buses and local trains in the city are over-crowded and sorely lacking in comfort and convenience for commuters, said The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

Rapid urbanisation has fuelled the need for an effective and sustainable public transportation system in Mumbai following the Delhi Metro model – a perfect example of synergy between public and private sectors, it said in the study titled ‘Urbanising India and Mega Metro Network: Vision for the Emerging Cities of India 2030.’

Growth explosion in Mumbai has pushed the city and its denizens towards serious crisis. Frequent traffic snarls due to narrow and choked road network is proving to be a growth bottleneck adding to increased costs of goods and services.

ASSOCHAM thus urged the Maharashtra government to undertake an environment-friendly mass rapid transit system (MRTS) and put its 1,460 km long first phase of Mumbai metro system with an estimated worth about Rs 20,000 crore on a fast track.

“The rapidly progressing city of Mumbai lacks a credible public transport system as roads and rails cannot take the load any longer,” said Mr D.S. Rawat, secretary general of ASSOCHAM. “Metro is a cost-effective feasible solution to put an end to transportation woes of millions of commuters.”

Traffic decongestion by encouraging commuters to shun their vehicles and use public transport is the primary aim of MRTS, said Mr Rawat.

Across the country, the number of cities with over 10 lakh people will increase from 48 to 68 in the next two decades, said Mr Rawat. “A nationwide network of mass transport systems is imperative to avert urban vehicular traffic.”

According to the ASSOCHAM study, the number of cities with population of 40 lakh and above will increase from seven at present to 13 in the next two decades. The subsequent growth explosion these cities will account for almost 70 per cent of India’s GDP.

Implementation of metro network in Delhi has resulted in multiple benefits like reduction in air pollution, time saving for passengers, reduction in number of road accidents, reduction in traffic congestion apart from fuel savings.

“Fuel savings due to Delhi Metro Rail could notch up to Rs 8,000 crore in 2011-12 and rise progressively to Rs 15,000 crore by 2020,” said the study. “Over two lakh office goers, businessmen and other professionals travel back and forth via metro in Delhi, and use their cars to move from home to station and back on weekdays.”

Delhi Metro has also become world’s first railway project to receive valuable carbon credits for regenerative braking and the environmental technology has also contributed over Rs two crore under a United Nations-backed initiative to combat climate change.

About 80,731 four-wheelers and 4.8 lakh two-wheelers on roads have been reduced and the withdrawal in number of buses had increased to 4,767. By 2015-16, the reduction in number of four-wheelers and two-wheelers is projected to reach 2.4 lakh and 1.5 lakh. The withdrawal in number of buses will rise to 12,388.

The MRTS will help reduce the extent of pressure on existing sub-urban transport systems and is an imperative to meet the future demand. It is not just environment-friendly but is also a financially viable and economical transport mechanism attractive to commuters, said the apex chamber.

The study said the MRTS will also help save fuel consumption, vehicle operating costs and save travelling time.

Nevertheless, it has created some excitement, because for the first time since Independence, the decadal increase in the size of the urban population (by 90.99 million people over 2001-11) was greater than that of the rural population (90.47 million). It is not only in the smaller states that urbanisation appears to be proceeding apace. In some larger states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the proportion of urban to total population is already approaching nearly half, while Maharashtra and Gujarat are not too far behind.

This finding has quickly generated reactions in the policy making community. The Planning Commission has already noted that ”addressing the problems posed by the urban transformation that is likely to occur” is among the four key challenges posed for the next Five Year Plan. (The others are described as those of managing energy and water and of protecting the environment.) Other commentators have talked about the need to put much greater emphasis on urban infrastructure creation and management, and on the need to ensure that the growing cities are ”livable”.

The implicit assumption in much of the discussion seems to be that the expansion of urban population is occurring largely in the bigger towns and cities, as well as the apparently unstoppable metros. But is this supported by the evidence?

Urban population increase reflects the outcome of three separate forces: the natural increase in population within the urban areas; the migration of rural dwellers to urban areas; and the reclassification of settlements from rural to urban. All three have been at work over the past decade. While we still do not have access to the detailed Census data that would allow for the disaggregation, we do know that the last factor is likely to have played a major role, simply because there has been a significant, even remarkable increase in the number of urban conurbations in the latest Census. The number of urban settlements has increased from 5161 in 2001 to 7935 in 2011, an increase of 54% that dwarfs the 32% growth in urban population.

The 2011 Census classifies an area as urban if it fulfils any one of two conditions. Firstly, any area that comes under a corporation, municipality or town panchayat is automatically classified as urban, and is defined as a ”statutory town”. Secondly, a location is considered to be urban if it contains a population of 5,000 or above, has a density of at least 400 persons per square km and 75 per cent of the male work force employed in non-agricultural occupations. It is then defined as a ”Census town”.

FOR MORE READING. . .

Road accidents are caused due to a number of factors such as driver’s fault, mechanical defects in the vehicles, fault of pedestrians, bad roads, bad weather, cattle, increase in population, vehicular population, heterogeneous traffic, fallen trees etc. The details of number of persons killed in road accidents on all roads during 2007 to 2009 (the latest available data) is given below:

                    Under National Highway Accident Relief Service Scheme (NHARSS) Ten Ton Cranes, Small Recovery Cranes for Hilly Areas and Ambulances are procured and supplied to State Governments/UTs.  The Ministry after finalization of tenders had already given work orders for Ten Ton Crane and Small Recovery Cranes for hilly areas but the selected firms could not deliver them before closure of the financial year.  The funds earmarked for ambulances could not be utilized as the tender for purchase of ambulances was discharged due to poor response. Therefore, the allocated amount could not be utilized during the year 2009-2010.

                    No specific time limit has been laid down for setting up of National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board.

This information was given by the Minister of State of Road Transport and Highways, Dr. Tushar A. Chaudhary   in  a written reply in Rajya  Sabha

Freight train movement was disrupted from December 23, 2010 to December 29, 2010 as a result of delay in the issue of visa to the Indian Loco Pilots by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. The matter was taken up with the Government of Pakistan and resolved amicably. However, passenger services were running smoothly.

Financial loss due to the disruption of freight services between 23rd and 29th December, 2010 has been assessed at approximately Rs. 19,71,893/-.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri K. H. Muniyappa in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha

More than just resource mobilisation, there should be emphasis on developing entrepreneurial and managerial skills that private sector can bring into rail transport with value addition for the end user, said The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

With 14 lakh employees and an annual budget of Rs 57,630 crore, Indian Railways is the third largest network in the world. The country has a land area of 3,290 lakh square kilometers but rail lines measure up to 64,015 kilometres, up from 53,596 kilometres during the Independence in 1947.

The average increase in route kilometres thus works out to 180 kilometres a year. Both developed and developing countries are spending hundreds of billion of dollars each year to add more route kilometres of new lines. China is spending 300 billion dollars (about Rs 14 lakh crore) over the next three years to expand and modernise its rail network.

“The fastest passenger carrying train in India cannot run at speed higher than 130 kilometres an hour,” said ASSOCHAM secretary general D.S. Rawat. “A passenger travelling from Dibrugarh in Assam to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu has to watch three sun rises and maybe four sun sets en route.”

The role of infrastructure support in terms of rail, road, ports and warehouses holds the key to economic success of a country. Mr Rawat said the scale of manufacturing in India is fast changing across widely distributed clusters and so are the markets and sourcing locations.

With national economy set to grow at over eight per cent in current financial year, Indian Railways should adopt a customer focused approach and modern technology through public private partnership in construction of dedicated freight corridors, high speed rail corridors, world-class railway stations and multi-modal logistics parks.

“PPP projects can set up special purpose vehicles for manufacturing of locomotives, coaches and wagons,” said Mr Rawat. “Indian Railways also need to diversify beyond its major business of bulk transfer, strengthen its competitiveness and develop partnership with different stakeholders to provide inter-modal logistics.”

At the same time, there is a strong need for high speed inter-city passenger service to cope up with increasing demand.

Indian Railways log nearly 61,500 crore passenger kilometres and 44,000 crore tonne kilometres of traffic. It carries less than 20 per cent of total passenger traffic and 40 per cent of the country’s freight.

Indigenous production and Import Dependence (%)

                                                                        (Million Metric Tonne)

Under the PSC regime the position of reserves of oil and oil equivalent of natural gas (including CBM) as on 01.04.11 are as under:

• Initial In-Place Reserves: 2029.38 MMT (O+OEG)
• Ultimate Recoverable Reserves: 835.56 MMT (O+OEG).
• Balance recoverable Reserves: 647.22 MMT (O+OEG).

No reserves of shale gas has yet been established. India is unlikely to become self-sufficient in meeting the growing demand for petroleum products from indigenous sources in near future.

This information was given by the  Minister  of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri R.P.N. Singh in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha

Ministry of Tourism provides Central Financial Assistance (CFA) to the State Governments/UT Administration/Central Government Agencies under the following schemes for development of tourism including cruise tourism:

1. Product/Infrastructure Development for Destinations and Circuits.
2. Assistance for Large Revenue Generating Projects.
3. Assistance to Central Agencies for Infrastructure Development.

No project relating to development of cruise tourism has been sanctioned during the last two years and the current year.

Initially, five ports namely Mumbai, Goa, Chennai, Mangalore and Kochi have been identified for cruise tourism including development of cruise terminal.

The Government of India has approved the Cruise Shipping Policy in June 2008. Some salient features of this policy include conducive fiscal regime, development of facilities at Ports and connectivity through rail, road transport, air and metro, quick completion of immigration formalities, hassle free custom clearance and proper waste disposal system ensuring cleaner ocean. An Inter Ministerial Steering Committee with Secretary (Shipping) as Chairman was constituted in June, 2010 to address issues relating to development of cruise shipping. Other steps taken for development of cruise tourism include production of a CD and participation in cruise shipping conventions.

This information was given by the Minister of State of Tourism, Shri Subodh Kant Sahah in a written reply in Lok Sabha

the installed capacity of a biomass power project varies between 6 MW to 10 MW depending upon the availability of biomass, whereas the installed surplus capacity of a bagasse cogeneration project in a sugar mill varies from 6 MW to 25 MW depending upon their daily cane crushing capacity.

the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy has been implementing various schemes during the 11th Five Year Plan, to encourage setting up of projects for generation of power from various biomass residues including bagasse and paddy husk for power generation based on combustion/ cogeneration and gasification technologies. Against a target of 1700 MW, a capacity addition of 1645 MW has been achieved which is 96% of the planned target

This step will throw out the self-employed — 51 per cent of our total workforce — leaving them to wither and decompose. Statisticians wishing to tone down the sheer scope and scale of this category may suggest that this is an omnibus term, that can include a doctor as well as one who polishes shoes.

Omnibus sector

But that is not the whole truth. The retail as a sector too is omnibus – the middleman who procures from the farmer, the transporter who on his mini-truck delivers perishables to the bazaars in urban peripheries, the local chakki/miller who grinds the grain and pulses, the neighbourhood shop owners with a team of salesmen who deliver grocery at one’s doorstep. Omnibus, self-employed and in the supply chain!

FOR MORE READING. . .

At present AMD is exploring uranium deposits at Tumallapalle-Rachkuntapalle,Kadapa district in Andhra Pradesh, Rohil, Sikar district in Rajasthan, Wahkut and Umthungkut in Meghalaya, Gogi, Gulburga district in Karnataka, , Sinridungari –Banadungri and Bangurdih, Singhbhum district in Jharkhand.Out of these deposits,63,269 tonnes of uranium (U3O8) have been established during the XI Plan Period. In Rohil, the Exploratory Drilling done till date has established 5,100 tonnes of uranium (U3O8).In About 19,738 tonnes .4,682 tonnes and 50,987 tonnes of of uranium(U3O8) has been established in Meghalaya , Gogi and Jharkhand respectively. There are number of smaller deposits in Chhattisgarh, UP and Katnataka.

Shri V. Narayanasamy, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions and in the Prime Minister’s Office gave this information in a written reply to a question by Shri Kachhadia Naranbhai in Lok Sabha

Training at the “ First Responders” from NDRF on response to nuclear or radiological emergencies is also conducted by the ERCs.

Shri V. Narayanasamy, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions and in the Prime Minister’s Office gave this information in a written reply to a question by Dr Kruparani Killi in Lok Sabha

The atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD), a constituent of Department of Atomic Energy has established the presence of 10.70 million tonnes of Monazite in the country, which contains 9,63,000 tonnes of Thorium Oxide (ThO2). India Monazite contains about 9-10% of ThO2 and about 8,46,477 tonnes of thorium Metal can be obtained from 9,63,000 tonnes of ThO2 which will be used for future programmes of DAE.

India is pursuing a three-stage nuclear power generation programme aimed at long term energy independence based on use of our abundant Thorium resources. The programme is to use Thorium for electricity generation in the long-term. In order to realize this goal, we are well into the first stage based on our modest domestic uranium resources. This will be followed by second stage comprising of fast reactors. It is proposed to set up a large power generation capacity based on fast reactors before getting into the third stage. Thorium in itself cannot produce electricity and it has to be first converted to Uranium-233 in a nuclear reactor. A comprehensive three-stage nuclear power programme is therefore being implemented sequentially.

Shri V. Narayanasamy, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions and in the Prime Minister’s Office gave this information in a written reply to a question by Adv. Ganeshrao Dudhgaonkar in Lok Sabha

At present AMD is exploring uranium deposits at Tumallapalle-Rachkuntapalle,Kadapa district in Andhra Pradesh, Rohil, Sikar district in Rajasthan, Wahkut and Umthungkut in Meghalaya, Gogi, Gulburga district in Karnataka, , Sinridungari –Banadungri and Bangurdih, Singhbhum district in Jharkhand.Out of these deposits,63,269 tonnes of uranium (U3O8) have been established during the XI Plan Period. In Rohil, the Exploratory Drilling done till date has established 5,100 tonnes of uranium (U3O8).In About 19,738 tonnes .4,682 tonnes and 50,987 tonnes of of uranium(U3O8) has been established in Meghalaya , Gogi and Jharkhand respectively. There are number of smaller deposits in Chhattisgarh, UP and Katnataka.

Shri V. Narayanasamy, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions and in the Prime Minister’s Office gave this information in a written reply to a question by Shri Kachhadia Naranbhai in Lok Sabha

INDEPENDENCE DAY 2011

Indian road network is the second highest with 42.36 lakh km of length. It comprises 70,934 km National Highways, 1,54,522 km of State Highways, 25,77,396 km of Major District Roads and other District Roads &   14,33,577 km of rural roads . 

The National Highways serve as the arterial network of the country. The development of National Highways is the responsibility of the Government of India. The Government of India has launched major initiatives to upgrade and strengthen National Highways through various phases of National Highways Development project (NHDP) Phase-I to Phase-VII which are briefly as under:                                                             

Phase I                                                                                                                                               

NHDP Phase I approved by Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in December 2000 comprises mostly of GQ (5,846 km) and NS-EW Corridor (981km), port connectivity (356 km) and others (315 km). Under Golden Quadrilateral only 19 km remain to be completed. 

Phase II                                                                                                                                  

Approved in December 2003 comprises mostly NS-EW Corridor (6,161 km) and other National Highways of 486 km length, the total length being 6,647 km. The total length of Phase II is 6,647 km. Phase-II is targeted for completion by December 2011. 5733 km (80.2 %) of NS-EW corridor is completed till June 2011.

Phase III                                                                                                                                

It consists of upgradation and 4 laning of 12190 km of National Highways.  Construction of 2351 km under NHDP-Phase-III is completed till June 2011. The target for NHDP Phase-III for completion is December 2013.

Phase IV                                                                                                                                             

Under this 20000 km planned to be constructed as 2 – laning with paved shoulders. Out of this, the Government has approved in July, 2008 the proposal upgradation/ strengthening of 5,000 km of single/intermediate/two lane NHs to 2-lane standards with paved shoulders under NHDP Phase-IVA on BOT (Toll) and BOT (Annuity) basis at an estimated cost of Rs. 6,950 crore.                       So far, 5 projects aggregating to 719 km length has been awarded by NHAI and 1 project of 108 km length has been awarded by Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation (MPRDC). In addition to the above identified list of 5,000 km under NHDP-IVA, about 15,000 km have been identified so far by this Ministry on the basis of recommendations received from various State Governments, NHAI and inter assessment.  Phase-IV is targeted for completion by December 2015 as per the financing plan.

Phase V                                                                                                                                  

It comprises six laning of 6,500 km includes 5,700 km of GQ and other (800 km) stretches on Design Build Finance and operation (DBFO) basis. Phase-V is targeted for completion by December 2012. 619 km of six laning is completed under NHDP-Phase-V till June 2011.

Phase VI                                                                                                                                 

The Government has approved construction of 1000 km of Expressway under NHDP Phase-VI at a cost of Rs. 16,680 crore on DBFO basis. NHDP Phase-VI is targeted for completion by December, 2015.

Phase-VII                                                                                                                               

It includes construction of 700 km of ring roads/bypasses and flyovers and selected stretches. NHDP Phase-VII is targeted for completion by December, 2014.

Port Connectivity                                                                                                                    

The NHDP inter alia includes port connectivity projects for improvement of roads connecting 12 major Ports in the country.  Programme for connectivity to Major Ports was approved in December, 2000 for 393 km (connectivity to Kandla for 56 km on NH-8 was on-going. Hence, total length is 449 km).                                                                                         

The Government under its various phased programmes sanctioned an amount of Rs.1896 crore on 10 major projects in the country for port connectivity.  These phased programmes also include one project for four-lane connectivity to the International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) at Cochin at a cost of Rs.557 crore.  Similarly, another project on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis, at a cost of Rs.1655 crore, was sanctioned for construction of an elevated road for Chennai Port to Maduravoyal.  Most of the major ports in the country were likely to be connected by four lane connectivity projects.  Among these projects, the JNPT Phase-I and II, Paradip Port in Odisha and Visakhapatnam project in Andhra Pradesh have been completed.  The projects, at the remaining ports, are at various stages of completion. Kolkatta Port connectivity project was dropped since the proposed alignment was passing through defense land which was not made available. Mumbai port connectivity project was also dropped since the proposed alignment was passing through salt pan areas. Therefore, out of 12 major ports 2 (Kolkata and Mumbai) were dropped, on one (Kandla) the work was already in progress and now it has been completed. In the remaining projects the work is either complete or in progress at various stages.                                                                                                                               

The Government has given top priority to the development of national highways which will facilitate the overall development of road infrastructure and transport sector at a faster rate.

New Initiatives                                                                                                                                    

The Ministry has taken initiatives to develop 6,700 km of single lane/intermediate lane NHs to minimum 2 lane standards on corridor concept keeping in view the targets stipulated in the Eleventh Plan for accelerated efforts to bring NHs network to a minimum of two-lane standard. The program is targeted to be completed by 2014. A length of 3770 km (33 Stretches) is proposed to be funded from a World Bank loan of US $ 2.96 billion and the balance length is proposed to be taken up through budgetary resources. A preparation of DPR for all the 33 stretches is nearing completion. Stretches having length more than 25 km in plain terrain or more than 15 km in hilly/rolling terrain and costing less than Rs 150 crore are being considered for taking up through budgetary provisions.

Road Development in Extremism Affected Areas                                                                              

The Government has approved approved in February 2009 scheme estimated to cost about Rs. 7,300 crore for development of NHs and State roads in Extremism  affected areas. It includes 34 districts in eight States namely, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh. Under the scheme, development of identified stretches of NHs (1202 km) and State roads (4363 km) to two lane standards are planned to be taken up in a phased manner. An allocation of Rs. 1,200 crore has been made from GBS under Annual Plan during 2011-12 for this programme.  The total additional fund requirement for this programme for the Eleventh Five Year Plan is Rs. 5,376 crore. Sanction has been issued so for 186 works for 4,967 km costing Rs. 6,629 crore. Out of these, 146 works for 3,889 km length costing Rs. 4,827 crore have been awarded.

Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for North-East Region (SARDP-NE):  Phase ‘A’ of SARDP-NE approved by the Government envisages improvement of about 4,099 km length of roads (2,041 km NHs and 2,058 km State roads).  The SARDP-NE Phase-A is expected to be completed by March, 2015. Phase ‘B’ of SARDP-NE, covering 3,723 km (1,285 km NH and 2,438 km State road), has been approved for DPR preparation only and so far DPRs for about 450 km has been completed. So far, about 742 km length has been completed under SARDP-NE Phase-A till May 2011. It is targeted to complete 270 km roads during 2011-12.

            The Arunachal Pradesh Package for Road and Highways involving development of about 2,319 km length of road (1,472 km is NHs & 847 km is State/General Staff/Strategic roads) has also been approved by the Government.  Projects on 776 km are to be taken up on BOT (Annuity) mode and the balance 1,543 km is to be developed on EPC basis.  The entire Arunachal Package is targeted for completion by June 2016. The status of Projects under this Programme is as follows:                                                                                                                    

BOT(Annuity) Projects – 2 Projects awarded in 58 km costing Rs. 1,553 crore; tendering for 3rd time completed for remaining 2 projects for balance 718 km & projects are on the verge of award.                                                                                                                                

EPC Projects –sanctioned 359 km; under tendering 25 km; under process for sanction 118 km; DPRs under preparation for balance 900 km; target for award of all civil works – March, 2012.

Progress of works under Major Projects                                                                                            

In order to make a visible impact, the Ministry has targeted to accomplish construction of National Highways at the pace of 20 km per day keeping in view the requirement to achieve the quantum jump from the current pace of construction.  At present works on over 10,500 km is in progress and to achieve the target of completing 20 km per day, works of about 20,000 km should be in progress at any point of time.  As on 1/4/2011 works were in progress is about 15,600 km length under NHDP, Spl. Programme for development of roads in extremism affected areas and SARDP-NE including Arunachal Pradesh package. It is being targeted to award works in a total length of about 11,050 km and complete works in about 3,570 km under these programmes. With this, it is being targeted to have works in progress in about 23,079 km length as on 1/4/2012.  Thus, it is being targeted to progressively build up the works in progress. (PIB Features)

*Inputs from the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways

PRA/RTS/VN

SS-129/SF-129/11.08.2011

The details of the outcome of such surveys conducted during the last three years i.e. 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 and the quantum of mineral reserves estimated State-wise are detailed below. As regards the details for current year i.e. 2010-12, the work is under progress and the resources, their quantum, etc. shall be estimated after the completion of the work –

GSI carries out its survey activities [mineral exploration] from the amount allotted through the Central Budget. The amount so received is distributed to Six Regions i.e. (i) Eastern Region [Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal], (ii) Central Region [Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh], (iii) Southern Region [Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,Kerala, Karnataka], (iv) Northern Region [Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab], (v) Western Region [Rajasthan, Gujarat] and (vi) North-Eastern Region [Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya,Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland]. Thus, GSI does not maintain record of expenditure State-wise.  The total funds allocated/ expenditure incurred by GSI on surveys during the last three financial years and the current financial year is as follows -

[Rs. in Lakhs]

This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Mines Shri Dinsha Patel in theRajya Sabha  today in a written reply.

Initiatives under passenger and parcel business segments include extension of Passenger Reservation System (PRS) and Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) facilities to more and more location, speeding up of trains, review of trains with low patronage, deployment of additional coaches in well patronized trains, vigorous checking of ticket less travelling, additional leasing of parcel space in certain nominated trains, leasing of vacant compartment of guard in front of SLR coach etc.

On the expenditure side, Railway is striving to improve productivity by better man-power planning, assets utilization, inventory management, fuel consumption etc. and controlling expenditure through number of austerity/economy measures.

Indian Railways works out excess/shortfall.  The excess generated by Indian Railways during 2005-06 to 2009-10 is given as under :

2005-06                        Rs. 6193.32 crore

2006-07                        Rs. 10206.32  crore

2007-08             Rs. 13431.09 crore

2008-09             Rs. 4456.78 crore

2009-10             Rs. 0.75 crore

The main reason for reduction “Excess” in the years 2008-09 and 2009-10 is the implementation of the recommendations of VI Central Pay Commission.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways ShriBharatsinh Solanki in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha

In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, the Minister of State for Power Shri K.C. Venugopal said out of the identified capacity, 33320.8 MW i.e. 22.93% has so far been developed and another 15130 MW i.e.10.41% of is under development. He said that about 66.66% of the identified potential is yet to be developed.

FOR MORE READING. . .

The share of private sector investment in infrastructure, estimated at about 20 per cent of the total investment of Rs 9,63,451 crore during the Tenth Plan, increased to about 30 per cent of the total estimated investment of Rs 22,71,623 crore during the Eleventh Plan.

PRIVATE INVESTMENTS

Much of the private sector investment in infrastructure has occurred in the roads sector. According to the Ministry of Finance statistics, road projects accounted for 60 per cent of the 450 Public-Private Partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects and 45 per cent of Rs 2,24,000 crore project costs of all the infrastructure projects.

A recent study by IIT-Madras yielded interesting findings on the effect of involving private sector in the road sector. Using a database of 521 public sector and PPP projects that covered a span of 15 years and having a total cost of about Rs 2,00,000 crore (2010 values), we were able to do a comparative analysis of public sector and PPP road projects in India.

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Six years ago, China set out to give itself a 10,000-mile high-speed rail network, which would be the biggest in the world and four times the famed Shinkansen system of Japan. Its leaders planned to use it to not just catch up with developed countries but also leapfrog them. In scale and likely impact on the Chinese economy, the project has been likened to the highway network built in the US during the Eisenhower administration, which helped the country become a modern economy.

Slated for completion in 2020, the railway system will see an investment of around $500 billion. It connects 200 cities at present and is progressing bang on time. Just a month ago, it launched perhaps its most prestigious service, the 820-mile Beijing-Shanghai run — it will cover in five hours a distance that takes nearly four times more time in the US. The plan is to increase the maximum speed from the current 190 miles per hour (mph) to 220 mph, with 90 trains running in each direction daily.

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As the debate on aircraft noise affecting people staying close to airports gathers momentum in India,

Excerpts from the interview:

Of late, there has been a lot of talk about airports and how the noise of the aircraft is causing a lot of discomfort to residents nearby. What is the reason for this sudden interest in airport noise?

Airport noise is something that we have been taking for granted. One reason for this is that all the airports were sufficiently away from living areas. It is just that cities have been growing and getting closer to the airports.

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One of the most crucial and important aspects in the production of electricity is the timely availability of requisite Balance of Plant systems for the various Power Plants under implementation.

What is Balance of Plants System

Balance of Plants (BoPs) such as Coal Handling Plant, Ash Handling Plant, Water Treatment/DM Plant, Cooling Tower, CW System, Chimney etc. have been identified as critical items for timely commissioning of thermal power project. BoPs have been and continue to be a critical area for achieving capacity addition targets. One of the reasons for the gap between the demand and supply of electricity is delay in execution of Balance of Plant (BoP) jobs which is primarily due to absence of competent BOP players who can execute the job within stipulated time and cost.

The market size of the BoP segment is over Rs. 900 billion. While the demand forBoP systems has been increasing, supply has failed to catch up. The segment continues to operate with a limited capacity. The limited capacity of contractors, suppliers and vendors often leads to delays in the commissioning of power projects. A gap also exists between availability & requirement of qualified BoP vendors and their implementation capacity.

Measures to Improve BoP system

The committee constituted in 2008 for development of vendors for Balance of Plant under the Chairmanship of Member (Energy), Planning Commission with Chairperson, CEA and Member Secretary, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council’s (NMCC) members has given the following recommendations:

• Orders for BoPs (or Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) of BoPs) should be placed within six months of placement of order for main plant and equipment.
• Liquidated Damages for Delays in execution of project in time should be enhanced to discourage cornering of large number of contracts by a few suppliers.
• CEA to finalize revised pre-qualification requirement for BoP vendors by February 2008 end. (It has been done and put on CEA website:www.cea.nic.in)
• CEA and NTPC to complete the exercise for finalizing the guidelines for standardization/broad design criterion for various packages of BoP progressively by the end of August 2008. (It has been done)
• Capacity building for availability of skilled manpower to be taken up by the project developers.
• Whether a level playing field is being provided to domestic supplier needs to be examined.

The Central Electricity Authority, CEA have already prepared the guidelines for standardization/broad design criterion for various packages of BoPs after taking into consideration views of utilities, BoP manufacturers, consultants & EPC contractors. The pre-qualifying requirements for BoPs have also been reviewed and modified. As a result of the above few new vendors/EPC contractors have emerged and capacity enhanced by existing vendors and also few new joint ventures (NBPL) have been formed between NTPC and BHEL to provide BoP system as well.

A committee has also been constituted to look into the aspects of liquidated damages for delay in supply/execution.

Learning From the Past

The capacity addition during the 11^th Plan so far has been about 38,000 MW. The achievement is a result of the impetus accorded to capacity addition at the beginning of the 11^thPlan. The actual capacity addition during the 10^th Plan was 21,180 MW against the target of 41,000 MW. Therefore, at the end of 10^th Plan, an analysis was carried out to assess various factors responsible for the slippage with a view to take remedial actions during the 11^th Plan. It was noted that about 11,000 MW capacity slipped from the 10^th Plan due to causes attributable to equipment suppliers including BoP and contractors. This paved the way for urgent steps for augmentation of manufacturing capacity of Main Plant and Balance of Plant manufacturers, major ones being coal handling plants, water treatment plants, cooling water system etc.

There is, however, a huge capacity addition programme envisaged for 12th Plan and beyond. CEA is monitoring the projects which are under construction, out of which a capacity of about 67,000 MW is expected from coal based plants during the 12^th Plan. Most of the BoPorders have already been placed for these projects.

Challanges Ahead

• Even though the manufacturing capacity of Main Plant has been substantially increased, a number of projects are still getting delayed due to constraints in timely availability of Balance of Plant systems and inadequate number of erection and commissioning agencies and construction equipment.
• It has been observed that orders for BoP are getting bunched with few vendors. It is felt that in order to expedite BoP work in  the country there is a need to develop additional players in the Indian market to adequately meet the future requirement and also to provide competition, generate employment and reduce cost.
• The Construction Industry in India has grown significantly and has acquired adequate experience in the field of construction and infrastructure projects. However, several concrete measures need to be taken to improve the present construction technology and enhance construction capabilities in terms of manpower and equipment. Engineers, Supervisors and skilled and unskilled workers need to be trained in the latest techniques and use of sophisticated equipment for construction, operation as well as O & M of power stations, transmission and distribution system.

Power Ministry had recently organised a National Conclave on Balance of Plants to deliberate on the  existing  issues and challenges ahead.  Addressing the delegates the Power Minister Shri Sushil Kumar Shinde called for not only the development of the vendor base but also for the development and deployment of new and better technologies. Indeed the mission of Power for All would be achieved only if all the players in the sector collectively gear up to face the challenges. (PIB Features)

*Director ( M & C), Press Information Bureau, New Delhi.

“The objective of the scheme is to extend initially the existing optical fiber network which extends upto districts  HQ’s/Block HQ’s level upto  the GramPanchayat level by utilizing Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) .The cost of the initial phase of the NOFN scheme is likely to be in the region of RS 20,000 crore. Similar amount of investment is likely to be made by  private sector complementing the NOFN infrastructure while providing services to individual users. Following the recommendation of the TC, the proposal will be placed before the Union Cabinet forapproval .

“A High Level Committee (HLC) to steer and coordinate all activities related to the creation and implementation of NOFN was earlier constituted by DOT on 26^thApril 2011 under the Co-Chairmanship of Shri Sam Pitroda, Adviser to PM on Public Information, Infrastructure and Innovation and Shri Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, UIDAI. The HLC has already held 3 meetings and has initiated steps to put the implementation on a fast track. A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will assumethe  responsibility for execution  of the project after approval of the scheme by thecabinet.The SPV will be finally owned by the Government/USOF.The BSNL has been entrusted with the task of undertaking the preparatory activity for project execution and establishment of the SPV

“An advisory body to advise on implementation issues and upstream & downstream integration as well as on issues relating to non discriminatory access of NOFN to service providers had also been setup earlier under the Chairmanship of Minister of Communications and IT on 26^th April 2011 by DOT .The advisory body includes the representatives from TSP’s and the private sector.

“In economic terms, the benefits from the scheme are expected through additional employment, e-education, e-health, e-agriculture etc. and reduction in migration of rural population to urban areas. As per a study conducted by World Bank, with every 10% increase in broadband penetration, there is an increase in GDP growth by 1.4%. It will also facilitate the Government to implement its various e-governance initiatives such as e-health, e-banking, e-education etc. thereby facilitating inclusive growth. It will also provide a network for electronic delivery of services to citizens apart from enabling various services to citizen services. The proposed NOFN will enable effective and faster implementation of various mission mode e-governance projects amounting to approx Rs 50,000 cr. initiated by Department of Information Technology as well as delivery of a whole range of electronic services in the above areas by the private sector to citizen in rural areas.”

Modernization of Ports

The Indian  major  ports  in  the  recent  past  have made significant strides in modernization and capacity augmentation. Port capacity development was possible mainly due to the various  policy  initiatives   taken  by  the  Government  for  increasing the  pace  of privatization and formulation of guidelines for fixation of upfront  tariffs. The maritime states also have come up with several policy initiatives and identified  potentiallocations for development of new outlets.  Thus, the major ports and non-major ports have assumed complementary roles, besides creating healthy competition which in turn enabled the sector to provide cost effective and quality service to the customers.

Growth of Traffic

As per the Maritime Agenda, 2020 issued by the Ministry of Shipping, the traffic at major ports is likely to grow at a  CAGR of 8.03% from 561.09 Million Tonnes in 2009-10 to 1214.82 Million Tonnes by 2019-20, whereas the traffic at non – major ports is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.96% from the present  level of 288.80 Million Tonnes to 1269.59 Million Tonnes by 2019-20.  Thus, the anticipated traffic at Indian Ports would grow to 2484.41 Million Tonnes by 2019-20 from the present level of 849.89 Million Tonnes  atCAGR of 11.32%.

Major Ports in India is expected to handle a traffic of 1214.82 million tonnes and to handle such magnitude of traffic, Ports have identified schemes which would create a capacity to the tune of 1459.53 million tonnes. It means that capacity at Major Ports by  theyear 2020 will surpass traffic by 20%. Major ports would continue to identify schemes/projects during the next decade to achieve the ideal norm of 30% over traffic. Incidentally, the capacity resulting from the ongoing schemes in 2020 has not been considered in  the projections. Even these projects, if advanced, will result in more capacity, thereby fulfilling the ideal objective. In addition to the above, the Central Government plans to commission two more Major Ports, one each on the Andhra Coast & West Coast, which will also entail addition capacity in the Major Port segment.

Future Plans

Having set the tone for the growth path, the Indian major ports and non- major ports   have  formulated  ambitious  plans  for  development  of  new  outlets, augmentation  of  existing  service  centres,  induction  of  state-of-the-art  cargo  handling equipment and improvement in logistics in order to meet the challenges emanating from the anticipated growth in the trade.  As per these plans, the capacity at 13 major ports is likely to increase to 1459.53 million tonnes by 2020 from the present level  of 616.73 Million Tonnes. The capacity at non-major ports is poised to increase by 2020 to 1660.02 Million Tonnes from the present level of 346.31 Million Tonnes. Thus, the Indian Ports are aiming at a surplus capacity of above 25% over the projected demand. This will enable the ports to  provide berthing facilities on arrival of the ships, thus achieving zero waiting time for the vessels.   The proposed investment during the next ten years is expected to be Rs. 2.77 lakh crore - 1.09 lakh crore for Major Ports and Rs.1.68 lakh crore for non-major ports.

Structural Changes

In addition to capacity augmentation, all the major ports are aiming at bringing structural changes in the administration of the ports to improve organizational effectiveness.  To this end, all the ports are planning towards implementing “landlord port” concept duly limiting their role to maintenance of channels and basic infrastructure leaving the development operation management of terminal and cargo handling facilities to the private sector. The ports are aiming at lean staff by extending information technology to the entire gamut of operations. Thus the Indian Ports are marching forward with a confident note and gearing themselves to meet the anticipated demand from the trade in the years to come.

PPP Mode

Public Private Partnerships will be the preferred mode for the development of port terminals and other commercially viable activities in the  Major Ports.  The standardization of  RFQ,  RFP and MCA and the formulation of guidelines for  fixation of upfront tariffs have served to make the PPP process transparent and to give confidence to the investors. Recently a Private Group has commissioned 12 million tonnes per annum expansion at its Vadinar terminal in Gujarat at a total cost of Rs.1065 crore.  With thisVadinar Port’s capacity has gone up to 58 million tonnes per annum.  Similar efforts ostensibly contribute to capacity expansion of Ports.

A Level Playing Field

In terms of  the  Regulatory  Framework  of  the  Private  Sector  Participation (PSP)  guidelines (1996), the  ports  were directed to ensure that private investment does not result in creation of private  monopolies  and that private facilities are available to all users on equal and competitive terms.  Accordingly, it was felt that a policy may be formulated for prevention of private monopoly in the Port Sector for ensuring healthy competition amongst the private operators and smooth award of projects for capacity augmentation at the Major Ports.  Under  Section  111  of  the  Major  Port  Trusts  Act,  1963 and  in  consultation  with Chairpersons of all Major Ports as well as stake holders, the following  policy  has been laid down with  effect from 2.8.2010 for preventing private sector monopoly in Major Ports: “If there is only one private terminal/berth operator in a port for a specific cargo, the operator  of  that berth or his associates shall not be allowed to bid for the next terminal/berth for handling the same cargo in the same port”.

While, the Maritime Agenda, 2010 – 20 envisages ambitious programmes to reach 3.12 billion tonnes port capacity within the next decade, a strong monitoring and feedback mechanism is very important to achieve the target. (PIB Features)

The reality is that since the UPA-II government was formed, the railway ministry has been languishing without a full time political leadership.  The union minister for railways was not only more pre-occupied with her political ambitions in West Bengal, but worse, mis-utilised the railway network and  its funds to advance the electoral campaign in the state.

When the UPA-II government assumed office, the vacancies in safety related positions in the Indian Railways was a whopping 89,024.  The country was assured that all measures to improve railway safety will be undertaken.  Within a year, these vacancies had risen to over 1.04 lakh.  This was part of the nearly two lakh vacancies that existed then in the railways as a whole.  Worse is the fact that the crucial post of member (traffic) in the railway board has been vacant for more than a year.  Still worse is the fact that several posts of the general manager of zonal railways, critical in handling railway operations and overseeing safety parameters, are lying vacant.  The union railways minister had neither the time nor the inclination to correct such serious lapses.

The railways had set its own targets in a corporate safety plan (2003-2013) highlighting the neglect of passenger safety over the years. None of these targets have been met.  This, according to the media, has been pointed out by a CAG report which exposed the failure of the Indian Railways to meet the targets of modernising signaling equipment, installation of anti-collusion devices and filling up safety related vacancies.  The CAG report highlighted that in all of railway’s 16 zones, there was a shortage of safety staff.  Thus, neglecting the ministry’s own targets, the union minister went on an overdrive of ill-planned expansions increasing the number of trains, many times over, on the same tracks.  This publicity blitz was to leverage the Indian Railways for the electoral battle in West Bengal.

The net casualty has been the safety in Indian Railways.  Innocent passengers by the hundreds are paying the price for such gross neglect and misuse of the railways to serve petty electoral agendas.

Another aspect is also a cause of worry.  Reports suggest that the Guwahati-Puri Express derailed after a massive explosion near the historic town of Rangiya in Assam.  There are allegations that suspected militants may have triggered such an explosion.  Similar issues were raised in the accident of the Gyaneswari Express last year which killed nearly 150 people.  The then union minister for railways had alleged that this accident was a handiwork of the ultras.  Today, as the chief minister of West Bengal, the same person announces her government’s decision to release 46 such militants from jail in West Bengal!

The Indian people cannot afford and, hence, should not permit such a cynical treatment of the Indian Railways.  The railway network is the lifeline for the people in our country.  If its safety is compromised in such a gross fashion, then this lifeline becomes seriously ruptured.  This UPA-II government must pull up its socks and entrust the Indian Railways to somebody who has the commitment and competence to deliver and not be put in charge of people who use the Indian Railways to serve their other political agendas.

Finally, needless to say that these accidents must be thoroughly probed and the guilty identified in the case of a human error and a deterrent punishment must follow. Mere departmental enquiries will not do.  This must be done in the interest of the country and its people.

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Ministry of Corporate Affairs has been working towards repositioning itself as a significant facilitator in creating a positive and healthy environment for doing business in India by offering an enlightened regulatory regime and efficient services so that the entrepreneurial energies are utilized in creating value for the stakeholders and are not spent in un-knotting the bureaucratic red tapes. A number of initiatives have been taken by the Ministry on legislative, regulatory, service delivery and capacity building sides.

CSR initiatives:

The Ministry has formulated “National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental and Economic responsibilities of Business” that will mainstream the subject of business responsibilities. The guidelines, released by Shri Murli Deora, Hon’ble Minister for Corporate Affairs today, are a refinement over the Corporate Social Responsibility Voluntary Guidelines 2009.  These guidelines have been formulated keeping in view the diverse sectors within which businesses operate, as well as the wide variety of business organizations that exist in India today – from the small and medium enterprises to large corporate organizations.  The Guidelines are applicable to all such entities, and are intended to be adopted by them comprehensively, as they raise the bar in a manner that makes their value-creating operations sustainable.

The Guidelines are not prescriptive in nature, but are based on practices and precepts that take into account the realities of Indian business and society as well as the global trends and good practices adapted to the Indian context.  It urges businesses to embrace the “triple bottom-line” approach whereby its financial performance can be harmonized with the expectations of society, the environment and the people it interfaces with, in a sustainable manner. The adoption of these Voluntary Guidelines would also improve the ability of businesses to enhance their competitive strengths, improve their reputations, their ability to attract and retain talent and manage their relations with investors as well as the society at large.

Recent initiatives on legislative, regulatory, service delivery:

Ministry of Corporate Affairs has been pursuing the agenda of providing an effective regulatory framework to the Indian corporate sector that enables them to freely exploit their entrepreneurial energies while contributing to the overall growth of the society. In order to cut time lines in service delivery and give further ease to the stakeholders, we have undertaken various initiatives in the recent past. Some of major initiatives are as under: –

(1)  Green Initiatives in the Corporate Governance :  The Ministry has allowed paperless compliances by the companies and Registrar of Companies under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 such as : -

(a)  Allowing service of Documents including Balance Sheets and Auditors report etc through e-mail addresses :   In order to reduce cost of posting and speedy delivery of documents, service of documents through electronic mode has been permitted under section 53 of the Companies Act, 1956 in place of  service of document under certificate of posting.  Similarly, to reduce the consumption of papers and speedy secure delivery,   service of copies of Balance Sheets and Auditors Report etc., to the members of the company as required under section 219 of the Companies Act, 1956 has been allowed to be served through electronic mode by capturing their e-mail addresses available with the depositories or by obtaining directly from the shareholders.

(b) Participation by Directors and shareholders in meetings through video conferencing : In order to provide larger participation and for curbing the cost borne by the Company, Directors, and shareholders to attend various meetings under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, participation through video conferencing has been permitted subject to certain compliances.

(c) Voting in General Meeting of Companies through electronic mode :  In order to have secured electronic platform for capturing accurate electronic processes, Central Depository Services (India) Ltd (CDSL)  and National Securities Depositories Limited (NSDL) are being given approval by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to provide their electronic platform for capturing accurate electronic voting in General meetings of the company.

(d) Issue of Digital Certificates by Registrar of Companies: The Registrar of Companies has to issue a number of certificates to the companies and other stakeholders as required under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956. In order to cut timelines and an another step towards “Green Initiative”, it has been decided that all certificates and standard letters issued by the Registrar of Companies will now be issued electronically under the Digital Signatures of the Registrar of Companies.

(2)  Simplification in Procedures and Process under Companies Act, 1956: The Ministry has taken following steps to simplify the procedures for the corporate are as under : –

(a)  Incorporation of new Company within 24 hours by end of July, 2011

i.     Allotment of Director Identification Number (DIN) has been made online by the system once the particulars of the applicant are verified by the practicing professionals.

ii.      The Ministry is issuing revised guidelines for allotment of name of the company. The name shall be made available online, if the application has been certified by the practicing professional that the proposed name is in conformity with the guidelines. The guidelines shall be implemented by end of July, 2011.

iii.     A separate e-form is being developed for the Memorandum and Articles of Association and incorporation process will be totally paperless.

(b) Issue of License under section 25 (non profit companies) of the Companies Act, 1956 : – Work relating to issue of license under section 25 (non profit companies) has been delegated to ROCs and condition for publication of notice for 30 days in the newspapers  before issue of license have been dispensed with.

(c)       The Director’s Relatives (Office or Place of Profit) Amendment Rules, 2011:- Limit of Directors relatives salary has been enhanced from Rs. 50,000/- per month to Rs. 2,50,000/- per month. Now onwards, for remuneration for relatives of the Directors within the enhanced limit, company need not to approach Ministry for approval.

(d)      Marking a company as having management dispute by Registrar of Companies under MCA-21 system : In order to have uniform practice in all Office of ROCs, clarification has been issued that unless there is a order of the court or the Company Law Board, no company is to be marked as having management dispute by the ROCs.

(e)       Various E-forms are approved online : A number of e-forms which are informative in nature have been processed and approved/ recorded by the Registrar of Companies online and are made available for inspection to the  public immediately.

(f)       Registration of place of business by a foreign company: Registration of place of business by a foreign company has been made priority item and it is registered by ROC on same day.

(g)       Appointment of LLPs of chartered accountants as auditor: After making amendment in definitions of body corporates, Limited Liability Partnerships of chartered accountants will not be treated as body corporate for the limited purpose of section 226(3A) of the Companies Act, 1956, hence they can be appointed as auditor of a company.

(h)  Allotment of Designated Partner Identification Number (DPIN) :Designated Partner Identification Number issued under Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) Act, 2008 has been integrated with DIN. Now (w.e.f. 09.07.2011) only DIN will be allotted under Companies Act, 1956 and the same will be used as DPIN for LLP Act, 2008.

(i)       New Guidelines for Fast Track Exit of defunct Companies : The Ministry has issued guidelines for Fast Track Exit mode to give opportunity to the defunct companies to get their names struck off from the Register under section 560 of the Companies Act, 1956 in time bound manner.

(j)  Special drive to clear pendency: A large number of e-forms filed prior to implementation of revised Regulation 17 are pending for want of action by the companies/stakeholders. Without any response from the companies, ROCs cannot process the said forms. As per Regulation 17, these forms have become time barred. To reduce the pendency of such e-forms, Ministry has decided to re-open all such pending forms for reviewing by ROCs and disposing them by 7^th July, 2011.

(k)      To improve compliances by the company : In order to ensure corporate governance and proper compliances by the companies, it has been decided that w.e.f. 3^rd July, 2011, no e-forms shall be accepted by ROC from such companies which have not filed their updated Balance Sheets and Annual Returns since 2006-07. The Directors of such defaulting company shall also be debarred for filing any document unless they make the default good.

(3) e-Payments in the Ministry: The payment of filing fee by the companies has been made completely online.

(4)  International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) : In the field of financial reforms, convergence of Indian Accounting Standards called Indian AS’s with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has been approved by the Ministry in February, 2011. The date of coming in force of Indian Accounting Standards will be notified shortly.

(5) Investor awareness programmes : In order to channelize the significant household savings available with the Indian households into the corporate economy, the Ministry has decided to launch investor awareness programmes in 300 districts in association with ICAI, ICWAI ICSI, Stock Exchanges, RBI, SEBI, Trade Chambers, etc.

(6) The Companies Bill, 2011 : The Companies Bill, 2009 was introduced in the Parliament on 3rd August, 2009 after an extensive stakeholders’ consultation. It was subsequently referred to the Department related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance for examination. The report and the recommendations of the aforesaid Standing Committee have been examined in the Ministry and a revised draft Companies Bill, 2011 prepared in consultation with Ministry of Law (Legislative Department), has been circulated to the various Ministries and Departments for views and comments. Once the consultation with Ministries and Departments are completed, a revised Bill as Companies Bill, 2011 is proposed to be introduced in the next session of the Parliament after obtaining due approvals. Consequent upon introduction of the Companies Bill, 2011, the Companies Bill, 2009, pending in the Lok Sabha, will be withdrawn.

(7) Reorganisation of field offices : For better administration and faster service delivery, the Ministry created a new office in the form of Regional Director (SER),Hyderabad in May 2011. The field offices of the Ministry are now organized in six regions. Similarly, it is planned to restructure the cadres in the Ministry for better service delivery to public and better promotional prospects to existing personnel.

(8) Easy Exit Scheme, 2011 : With a view to reduce the number of defunct /inoperative companies, we launched Easy Exit Scheme, 2011 providing them an easy route for closure. Under the scheme, till now, more than 29,000 defunct /inoperative companies have been struck of.

(9) Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) : The Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) has started functioning from its new office and building at Manesar. A large number of new initiatives, capacity building etc. are planned at IICA.

Following improvements are planned in the functioning, service delivery and regulatory work of the Ministry:

(1)  Limited Liability Partnership Act : The e-Governance project for Limited Liability Partnership Act, (LLP Act) is running. However, to improve the working of LLP Act, it is planned to take up the registration of LLPs as a full e-Governance project on the same platform as MCA21.

(2)  Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) : Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is being introduced in e-filing of Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss Accounts, etc. to have compatibility with international accounting and for data mining and analysis. The taxonomy of XBRL has been finalised after extensive consultation with all stakeholders – ICAI, Trade Chambers, etc. This taxonomy has been placed on the website of Ministry for information of all.

(3)  National Foundation for Corporate Social Responsibility (NFCSR) : It has been decided to establish National Foundation for Corporate Social Responsibility (NFCSR) at IICA.

(4)  National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) : To cut short the time delays in liquidation of companies. The Ministry is in process of establishing National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) which will replace High Courts and BIFR for liquidation and rehabilitation of companies.

(5) Guidelines for unpaid and unclaimed dividends:  The Ministry is formulating guidelines for unpaid and unclaimed dividends. It is also in the process of implementing a functionality whereby the names of such investors who have not claimed amounts due to them shall be displayed on the website of the Ministry for the benefit of all.

(6)  New  Bills on Multi State Societies and Multi State Partnerships

The Ministry is considering to bring legislations on Multi State Societies and Multi State Partnerships to regulate their business activities.

******

ST/-

E-Ticket on Mobile Phone now Possible through new Web Portal Facilitating Travel by Merely Displaying SMS Without Ticket Printout

In a milestone measure undertaken by Ministry of Railways for the benefit of  rail users, a comprehensive Indian Railway Web Portal with the URLwww.indianrailways.gov.in has been launched with a view to consolidate all the services and information onto a single window web-interface for the public.   This comprehensive omnibus single window web interface will be for the entire Rail User community of India whether they are Passenger Service, Freight Service or Parcel Service Customers.

At an impressive programme jointly organized by Eastern Railway and Kolkata Metro Railway  yesterday at Kolkata, former Union Railway Minister and presently the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee launched this unique public friendly facility.  Minister of State for Railways, Shri Mukul Roy was among those specially present on this occasion.  The other activities inaugurated at this function included Automatic Fare Collection & Passenger Control  System (AFC & PC)  gates at all Kolkata Metro  Stations.

Indian Railway Web Portal has following components:

1.                                          Hosting the existing websites of Railway Board, all the Zonal Railways, Production Units onto the portal.

2.                                          Creation of uniform Web address system of all the Railway Websites

3.                                          Tracking facility for freight trains running and Parcels status by customers

4.                                          Journey planner with user-friendly functionalities.

5.                                          E-ticket functionality dedicated for normal passengers.

6.                                          Facility to book retiring rooms for any station.

7.                                          Mobile phone based ticket booking in which passenger need not print his/her ticket but carry the display ticket sent to his/her mobile phone through SMS.

8.                                          Web and SMS based Complaints and Suggestions Management System for all Railway customers

The e-ticketing module of the Indian Railway Web Portal is expected be the most sought after facility by the normal passenger.  The e-ticketing operations of IRCTC on its website shall also continue in parallel. In the additional facility of e-ticketing provided by IR Web Portal, no travel agents have been allowed so that normal passengers can have ease of booking during peak hours.

The Portal will broadly provide e-ticketing on the Internet (booking and cancellation) and e-ticketing on mobile phone (booking and cancellation).

Individual users choosing to use the e-ticketing facility shall be required to register himself/herself for the first time for this purpose after submitting the mandatory details and shall be provided a unique user ID.  This registration will be free of charge.  Thereafter he can avail the services of Booking and Cancellation of e-tickets.  He can take a printout of the e-ticket which is known as Electronic Reservation Slip (ERS).

Individual users desirous of utilizing the facility of booking e-ticket on mobile phone ( which is being named as m-ticket), having requisite internet facility can do so by downloading the mobile ticketing application on the mobile phone from the IR Portal, using the URL sent in SMS.  On completion of booking and payment formalities, a SMS containing the ticket details will be sent to user which is referred to as Mobile Reservation Message – (MRM). The cost of MRM from IR Web Portal shall be borne by Indian Railways.  Such passengers need not require to carrya print out of the ticket and instead display the SMS (namely MRM).  Similarly a Screen-shot of the e-ticket displayed through laptops/palmtops (referred as Virtual Reservation Message – VRM) will also be construed as e-ticket and such passenger also need not take a print out of the e-ticket and instead display the Screen-shot on their laptops/palmtops.

It is mandatory that at least one passenger booked on the e-ticket/m-ticket carry at least one of the following eight proofs of identity (in original ) :

Ø  Voter Photo Identity Card issued by Election Commission of India.

Ø  Passport.

Ø  PAN Card issued by Income Tax Department.

Ø  Driving License issued by RTO.

Ø  Photo Identity card issued by Central/State Government.

Ø  Student Identity Card with photograph issued by recognized school/college for their students.

Ø  Nationalized Bank Passbook with photograph.

Ø  Credit Cards issued by Banks with laminated photograph

ERS/MRM/VRM along with any one of the eight prescribed ID proofs in original and the indication of the passenger(s)’ name(s) in the Reservation Chart will entitle the passenger(s) to travel.

ERS/MRM/VRM along with one of the eight prescribed proofs of Identity in original will also authorize the passenger to enter the platform on the day of journey and he/she will not be required to purchase platform ticket.  ERS/MRM along with original ID proof will be required to be produced on demand by Ticket Checking Staff on the platform.

The facility of booking e-tickets through IR Web Portal will be available from 00.30   hours to 23.30 hours daily.  The booking for a particular train shall be permitted up to the time of preparation of reservation charts.

A maximum of eight PNRs per user ID per month shall be permissible.  The passengers can book seats/berths on the e-ticket on the web portal against General quota/Tatkal quota/Ladies quota/Senior Citizen Quota.  No concessions, except Senior Citizen concession, will be allowed on e-tickets.  No Group Booking shall be permissible on e-ticketing through Indian Railway Web Portal.

The service charges levied by the Railways will be Rs. 5/- per ticket for Sleeper Class (SL) and Second Sitting (2S) classes and Rs. 10/- per ticket for all other Reserved Classes.

The detailed procedure of cancellation and refund has also been mentioned in the IR Web Portal.

The detailed commercial circular of Ministry of Railway on this introduction of e-ticketing and ticketing through mobile phone on IR Web Portal can be seen inwww.indianrailways.gov.in

Called m-ticket, it can be booked by passengers having internet facility by downloading the mobile ticketing application on their cellphones from the railways’ new web portal. A passenger can book train tickets through a mobile phone and carry the display ticket sent to her\his cellphone through an SMS.

The facility is part of comprehensive Indian Railways web portal, www.indianrailways.gov.in, which was launched by West Bengal chief ministerMamata Banerjee in Kolkata on Thursday.

The new portal aims at consolidating all the services and information into a single window web-interface for the public.

On completion of booking and payment formalities, an SMS containing the ticket details will be sent to the user, which is referred to as Mobile Reservation Message (MRM). The cost of MRM from IR web portal will be borne by the Indian Railways. The facility of booking e-tickets through railways’ web portal will be available from 12.30 am to 11.30 pm daily.

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National Knowledge Network (NKN) project is aimed at establishing a strong and robust internal Indian network which will be capable of providing secure and reliable connectivity. bring together all the stakeholders from science, technology, higher education, healthcare, agriculture and governance to a common platform.

Using NKN, all vibrant institutions with vision and passion will be able to transcend space and time limitations in accessing information and knowledge and derive the associated benefits for themselves and for the society. Establishing NKN is a significant step towards ushering in a knowledge revolution in the country with connectivity to 1500+ institutions. NKN is intended to connect all the knowledge and research institutions in the country using high bandwidth / low latency network.

Globally, frontier research and innovation are shifting towards multidisciplinary and collaborative paradigm and require substantial communication and computational power. In India, NKN with its multi-gigabit capability aims to connect all universities, research institutions, libraries, laboratories, healthcare and agricultural institutions across the country to address such paradigm shift. The leading mission oriented agencies in the fields of nuclear, space and defence research are also part of NKN. By facilitating the flow of information and knowledge, the network addresses the critical issue of access and create a new paradigm of collaboration to enrich the research efforts in the country. The network design is based on a proactive approach that takes into account the future requirements and new possibilities that this infrastructure may unfold, both in terms of usage and perceived benefits. This will bring about a knowledge revolution that will be instrumental in transforming society and promoting inclusive growth.

Background

The idea of setting up the NKN was deliberated & finalised at the office of Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India (GoI) and the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) after a collaborative engagement with the key stakeholders including experts, potential users, telecom service providers, educational and research institutions. The discussions resulted in a consensus for an optimal approach to be adopted for setting up such a network, to provide a unified backbone for all the sectors.

Government of India has constituted a High Level Committee (HLC) for establishment of NKN, under the Chairmanship of the PSA to GoI. National Informatics Centre has been designated as implementing agency for NKN. The vision of NKN has been translated into an action plan by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) set up by the HLC.

NKN was approved in March 2010 by the Cabinet with an outlay of Rs 5990 Crores. As a forerunner of NKN Initial phase has been successfully executed by National Informatics Centre (NIC).

Highlights

The architecture of NKN has been designed for reliability, availability & scalability. The network consists of an ultra-high speed core, starting with multiple 2.5/10 G and progressively moving towards 40/100 Gigabits per Second (Gbps). The core is complimented with a distribution layer covering all districts at appropriate speeds.

The participating institutions at the edge would seamlessly connect to NKN at gigabit speed. The NKN shall be a critical information infrastructure for India to evolve as a knowledge society. NKN is a significant step which will enable scientists, researchers and students from across the country to work together for advancing human development in critical and emerging areas.

- Establishing a high-speed backbone connectivity which will enable knowledge and information sharing.

- Enabling collaborative research, development and Innovation

- Facilitating advanced distance education in specialized fields such as engineering, science, medicine etc.

- Facilitating an ultra high speed backbone for e-Governance

- Facilitating integration of different sectoral networks in the field of research, education, health, commerce and governance.

Connectivity

The backbone of the network starts from 2.5 Gbps and progressively moves onto 10 Gbps connectivity between 7 Supercore (fully meshed) locations pan India. The network is further spread out through 26 Core locations with multiple of 2.5/10 Gbps partially meshed connectivity with Supercore locations. The distribution layer connects entire country to the core of the network using multiple links at speeds of 2.5/10 Gbps. The end users are being connected upto a speed of 1 Gbps.

The network architecture and governance structure allows users with options to connect to the distribution layer as well.NKN enables creation of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) as well for special interest groups.

NKN provides international connectivity to its users for global collaborative research. Presently, NKN is connected to Trans Eurasia Information Network (TEIN3). Similar connectivity to GLORIAD network is in the pipeline.

Applications

Countrywide Virtual Classroom

The NKN is a platform for delivering effective distance education where teachers and students can interact in real time. This is especially significant in a country like India where access to education is limited by factors such as geography, lack of infrastructure facilities etc. The network enables co-sharing of information such as classroom lectures, presentations and handouts among different institutions.

Collaborative Research

The NKN enables collaboration among researchers from different entities like GLORIAD, TEIN3, GARUDA, CERN etc. NKN also enables sharing of scientific databases and remote access to advanced research facilities.

Virtual Library

The Virtual Library involving sharing of journals, books and research papers across different institutions, is a natural application for NKN.

Sharing of Computing Resources

High-performance computing is critical for national security, industrial productivity, and advances in science and engineering. The network enables a large number of institutions to access high-performance computing to conduct advanced research in areas such as weather monitoring, earthquake engineering and other computationally intensive fields.

Grid Computing

The NKN has the capability to handle high bandwidth with low latency and provision to overlay grid computing. Some of the grid based applications are climate change/global warming, science projects like Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and ITER. The NKN can be the platform to realize many such innovative applications. The Garuda Grid has enhanced its power and stability by migrating to NKN.
Network Technology Test-bed

NKN provides test-bed for testing and validation of services before they are made available to the production network. NKN also provides an opportunity to test new hardware & software, vendor interoperability etc.

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The salient features of the All India Railway Time Table i.e. TAG are as under :

1.         Encouraged by the public response over the past few years all the user-friendly features of Trains at a Glance viz. how to read a table, route map, station index,  trains between important stations,  station code index, Train number index,  Train name index, has been retained.

2.         Five digit numbering scheme for train services has come into force from 20^th December, 2010. This has been necessitated as the numbers in four digit numbering scheme got exhausted as also to enable capture of all types of passenger train services viz.  Duronto, Rajdhani, Shatabdi, and other Mail/Express services, sub-urban, holiday specials, etc. on Indian Railways. The five-digit train numbering has been accordingly indicated in Trains at a Glance.

3.         Colour coding scheme adopted for various categories of trains: (a) Pink for Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, Jan Shatabdi Express, Garib Rath Express and Duronto Express (b) Yellow for Double Decker services and other superfast trains (d) blue/white for other mail/Express trains.

4.         New category of services viz. Double Decker services, Rajya Rani services, VivekExpress, Kavi Guru Express have been included.

5.         Commercial information of passenger use and interest viz. advance reservation period, reservation through internet, refund rules and rail travel concessions have been suitably updated. New addition to the fare chart is the fare for AC and mixed type of Duronto services.

6.         Information regarding Vigilance organization, Public grievance machinery, disaster management and catering services have been incorporated.

7.         The Metro Railway, Kolkata has been added in the list of Zonal railways. The website addresses of all Zonal railways have been added this time.

• Budget announcements: The details of all the train services  announced  and which have been incorporated in the Trains at a Glance are as under:

• Category-wise details:

I. Duronto trains: Duronto Train services were conceptualized in the year 2009-2010. At present 23 pairs of Duronto services are operational. In this year’s Railway Budget 09 pairs of Duronto services have been proposed, which are as under:

1.            Allahabad-Mumbai AC Duronto (bi-weekly)

2.            Pune- Ahmedabad AC Duronto (tri-weekly)

3.            Sealdah – Puri non AC Duronto (tri-weekly)

4.            Secunderabad- Visakhapatnam AC Duronto (Tri-weekly)

5.            Madurai- Chennai AC Duronto (Bi-weekly)

6.            Chennai - Thiruvananthapuram AC Duronto (Bi-weekly)

7.            Mumbai Central- New Delhi AC Duronto (Bi-weekly)

8.            Nizamuddin-Ajmer non-AC Duronto(Bi-weekly)

9.            Shalimar – Patna Duronto (Tri-weekly)

II. Double Decker AC:

1.            Jaipur- Delhi

2.            Ahmedabad-Mumbai

III. Shatabdi Express:

1.            Pune -Secunderabad

2.            Jaipur-Agra

3.            Ludhiana – Delhi

IV. Vivek Express: To mark the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda which will be celebrated in 2013, “Vivek Express” are being proposed as under:

1.            Dibrugarh- Thiruvanthapuram-Kanniyakumari Express (weekly) via

2.            Kokrajhar

3.            Dwarka-Tuticorin Express (weekly) via Wadi

4.            Howrah-Mangalore Express (Weekly) via Palghat

5.            Bandra (T)- Jammu Tawi Express (Weekly) via Marwar-Degana- Ratangarh-

6.            Jakhal- Ludhiana

V. Kavi Guru Express: As a homage to the great poet Kavi Guru Ravindra Nath Tagore, it is proposed to run the following Kavi Guru Express trains:

1.            Howrah-Azimganj Express (daily) via Sagardighi

2.            Guwahati- Jaipur Express (weekly)

3.            Howrah-Bolpur Express (daily)

4.            Howrah-Porbander Express (weekly)

VI. Rajya Rani Express: A new set of trains connecting state capitals with important cities/towns in those states are as under:

1.            Sawantwadi Road - Mumbai Express (daily)

2.            Saharsa - Patna Intercity Express (daily)

3.            Meerut- Lucknow Intercity Express (daily)

4.            Mysore - Bangalore Express (daily)

5.            Damoh - Bhopal Intercity Express (daily)

6.            Silghat – Dhubri Intercity Express (tri-weekly via Guwahati – Kokrajhar -Jogighopa)

7.            Bankura – Howrah Express (tri-weekly)

8.            Nilambur Road – Thiruvananthapuram Link Express (daily)

9.            Jharsuguda – Bhubaneswar Express (tri-weekly)

10.        Manmad – Mumbai Express (daily) via Nasik

Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant derived its name From Jaitapur lighthouse which is mentioned in many international maps. Government of India has decided to promote nuclear power at a large scale in view of rapidly rising demand for electricity, limited and depleting fossil resources, environmentally benign and safe nature of nuclear power etc. Accordingly, Government of India accorded its sanction in October 2005 to set up the Nuclear Power Plant at Jaitapur besides three other locations.

Technical and Economic Reasons for Selection of  Jaitapur Site

The Site Selection Committee recommended setting up a nuclear power plant at Jaitapur, based on the suitability of meeting criteria like  which include availability of land vs. population density, available source of cooling water , seismicity, safe-grade elevation at site (flood analysis etc), environment aspects and proper access for transportation of heavy/over-dimensional equipment to plant site. Along with these conditions and based on some other considerations the Government approved Jaitapur site for the establishment of the NPP.

The site selection for is carried out by the Site Selection Committee, notified by the Government of India which selects site for  setting up a nuclear power plant, revied various parameters as per the requirements laid down in the code of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and the laid-down criteria.

Earthquake-prone Site

The Jaitapur site is not considered earthquake-prone. As per seismic zoning map of Government of India, Jaitapur site falls within zone III. The longitude and latitude of the land covered for Jaitapur nuclear power project are given below:

Latitude of JNPP site: 16° 34’ 38” N to 16° 36’ 29” N

Longitude of JNPP site: 73° 19’ 02” E to 73° 20’ 48” E

As per the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) codal requirement, there should not be any active fault within 5 km radius from the proposed site of an NPP. Further, based on the studies carried out by various government institutes/ organisations, there is no active fault found up to 30 km radius from JNPP site. Hence, the site is not considered earthquake-prone. This is to further confirm that based on the available data of seismicity prevailing in the geographical region, all the structures, buildings and equipments of JNPP would be designed to qualify the “ground motion acceleration”

Benefits of the Project

The benefits of project are-

i) The project will augment electricity generation in the country, in a benign and environment-friendly way, which is the need of the hour.

ii) Development of areas around project site.

iii) Direct and indirect employment opportunities.

iv) Contribution of National Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) in social and community development of surrounding areas, especially nearby villages, in the field of education, health and infrastructure facilities.

Generation Capacity of JNPP

One unit of 1650 MWe plant operating at full capacity shall generate 36-39 million units per day. Presently, generation capacity of six units is 1650 MWe capacity each. Evolutionary Pressurised Reactors (EPR) from AREVA, France is under consideration of the Government of India.

Number  of Reactor Units

There will be six reactor units of 1650 MWe each at JNPP. The distance between each adjacent reactor unit is planned to be 250-300 meters.

Completion of Project

5 to 6 months’ time is required to declare commercial operation after completion of construction. The time required for completion of each unit is approximately six years  from the start date. Approximately all the six units of 1650 MWe each will be constructed in a twin-unit mode in phased manner and implemented in a period of 15-18 years.

Life Span of Each Plant

The guaranteed life of the proposed plant is 60 years.

Type of Fuel

This plant will be “PWR-type”, based on enriched uranium fuel. Irrespective of the fuel type, all the safety guidelines based on International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)/Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) regulations are strictly adhered to by NPCIL to ensure that there is no adverse effect on environment, health and life of people through air, sea and land as a result of the operation of the NPP.The uranium will be supplied by AREVA, France, which will be also supplying the reactor units.

Source of Fresh Water

The fresh water requirement of the plant units and the proposed residential complex of JNPP will be met from a desalination plant facility installed by (NPCIL).

Government has launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission to encourage large scale use of solar energy technologies in the country. Government has approved a target to set up 1,100 MW grid connected solar plants, including 100 MW capacity plants as rooftop and other small solar power for the first phase of the Mission till March 2013. In addition, a target of 200 MW capacity equivalent off-grid solar applications and 7 million square meter solar thermal collector area were also approved.

Ministry has so far sanctioned 802 MW capacity of grid connected solar projects and 38.5 MW of off-grid solar PV projects. In addition during the year, 5 lakh sq meter of solar thermal collector area has been installed.

An amount of Rs. 360 crore has been allocated for the activities of the Mission during 2010-11

Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission

NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN) has selected 620 MW capacity grid solar power projects (connected to 33 KV and above) through a tariff discounting process in December, 2010. The successful applicants have proposed to set up projects of 505 MW capacity in Rajasthan, 65 MW in Andhra Pradesh, 20 MW in Gujarat, 10 MW in Karnataka and 5 MW each in Orissa, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. The objective of this process was to achieve lowering of tariff for solar power. This process has helped in reduction of tariff by about 30% over the tariff fixed by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. The projects are to be set up on build, own and operate basis.

In order to spread solar power projects in a number of States, Ministry had announced another scheme to support small grid connected solar power projects of a capacity up to 2 MW (connected to grid below 33 KV). Under this scheme the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) has selected 78 projects to set up 98 MW capacity solar power plants in 12 States. In this scheme, the solar power will be purchased by the concerned state utilities at a rate fixed by the respective State Electricity Regulatory Commissions. The Ministry will provide a generation based incentive to the concerned State utilities to reduce their burden.

Land acquisition problems, delayed environmental clearances, fund constraints and slow progress in works are prime reasons for the overruns. Delays pile up supply side constraints, leading to expected demand not being matched and pushing inflation to higher levels.

“This is disturbing as the prime minister has consistently advocated creation of world-class infrastructure projects to boost economic growth and spread overall prosperity,” said Mr D.S. Rawat, secretary general of The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

The recent project implementation report, prepared by the Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, shows that the proportion of central projects from these sectors which are running behind schedule has steadily increased from about 34 per cent of the total projects in March 2007 to over 53 per cent during December 2010.

“This is an alarming trend – given the fact that central sector projects which were facing time overruns had declined from over 62 per cent in 1992-93 to about 32 per cent in 2001-02,” said Mr Rawat. The figure remained below 40 per cent till 2006-07, after which it showed a sharp increase.
As a result, central sector projects which are facing cost overruns have also increased. According to the report, the cost overrun of central sector projects increased from about 12 per cent in 2007-08 to about 21 per cent till December 2010.

Projects facing cost overrun had steadily declined from a high of about 62 per cent in 1990-91 to a low of about 12 per cent in 2007-08. “This will blunt the competitive edge of Indian companies and have a trickle down effect on various sectors of the economy,” said Mr Rawat.

An analysis of cost overruns in the last 20 years with respect to the originally approved cost shows that the cost overrun declined from 61.6 per cent in March 1991 to 12.06 per cent till March 2008. There is an upward trend from March 2008 to 14.72 per cent in March 2010, and it stabilised at around 20.7 per cent in December 2010.

The report underlines that the last fiscal’s jump may have been caused mainly due to exclusion of projects costing Rs 20 crore to Rs 150 crore from the monitoring system as these smaller projects usually had lower cost overruns. It has also blamed high inflation, saying the increase is also due to steep rise in prices of cement and steel in 2006-07 followed by the recent global recession.

The report looked into the implementation of projects worth Rs 150 crore and more from 15 different sectors that included railways, highways, power, petroleum, telecom, urban development, water resources, ports, steel, mines, coal, fertilisers, civil aviation and atomic energy being executed by the central government or its agencies.

Of the 599 central sector projects worth over Rs 150 crore, 322 were found to be running behind schedule till December 2010. While the overall cost overrun of the 599 projects was 20.7 per cent, the cost overrun of as many as 203 projects was 81 per cent.

If implemented the project shall change the face of freight traffic business of railways which is due to problems in land acquisition and other issues.

Consequently the project cost has escalated from the originally sanctioned Rs. 281.81 billion (Rs. 281,81 crores) to Rs. 423.11 billion (Rs. 42,311 crore) for developing both the eastern and western corridors excluding the Sonnagar-Dankuni stretch in the eastern arm.

Realiganment of the route of the corridor will result in major delays to the project which is integral to the growth of IR. Once completed, the dedicated freight corridor will enable Indian Railways to be more customer oriented and enable it to meet the market need in a more effective way. It will also help in developing industrial corridors and logistic park along its alignment.

Present railway track carry an axle load of 22 tonnes, whereas the axle load in many other countries vary from 25 tonnes to 38 tonnes, enabling a load weight of wagons to be 150 tonnes as against 85 in Indian railways.

However, major growth potential remains in container movement. Elsewhere, double-stack container trains are routinely seen to maximize through put and reduce cost. Here the vertical limitation on track does not allow double stacking and increase of clearance is a great task with electrification compounding the problem. Work has progressed on installation of high rise overhead line equipment after several tests confirmed the feasibility. This has lead to IR’s decision to wire the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor at 25 KV 50 Hz.

With the prevailing low level of containersation in the country which is 30-35 per cent, as against international standard of 70 per cent the Chamber said in a statement there is tremendous scope for growth of container traffic in the country.

A substantial number of private container train licensees have been able to operationalise to various degrees over the last  couple of years. The delay in implementation of Western Dedicated Freight Corridor and increase in haulage charges by the railways remains a cause of concern to the private operators.

Though the achievement remains less than satisfactory over the period, since its deregulation, the importance of container industry cannot be overemphasised.

It is thus an imperative that all parties work in tandem to ensure the running of container trains. It will thus be viable business option capable of attracting capital investment needed for its growth.

Towards improving the payload-to-tare ratio of wagons, there is a need to look into the option of using light weight and corrosion resistant material for making wagons. IR needs to introduce special types of wagons for movement of automobiles, cement, fly ash from power plants and other hazardous chemicals. In order to bring about these changes and other technological innovations a robust R&D infrastructure is a necessity.

Modern Luggage Trolleys with brakes, similar to those provided at airports (standard dimensions) will be provided for round the clock service. These trolleys should be provided by service providers who will be engaged for each station through a separate open-tender process to be followed by the zonal Railways. The contractual period shall be for one year.

These trolleys will be provided by service providers with no initial or recurring investment by the Railways. The service provider providing these trolleys will have to pay annual license fees to the Railways based on the highest financial bid in the open tender.

The number of trolleys to be provided at a station will be decided by the Zonal Railways based on the requirement and taking into account the congestion at the platforms of the Railway station. The number of trolleys, however, will not exceed 50 on a station.

Service provider shall be allowed to advertise on these trolleys in accordance with the guidelines stipulated for advertisement on Railway premises with respect to aesthetics, public morale etc. The space for advertisement will be fixed by the Zonal Railways and will be notified while inviting the tender. The advertising material will have to be approved from the Railway authority before display. There will be no advertising which may affect the business of the Railways negatively like advertising of airlines etc. Railways will specify this area of advertisement as additional space in cases where the bulk advertisement rights for commercial publicity are awarded. The space used for advertisements on trolleys will not be included in the bulk advertisement rights.

The Zonal Railways will notify the specific telephone number on which senior citizens and ladies can book the luggage trolley in advance. The “Rail Yatri Sevaks” will hold a placard with number to help the passengers in identification of the assigned trolley. The passenger booking the service will furnish the PNR to the “Rail Yatri Sevak” for the purpose of verification.

It will be clarified by the Zonal Railways that “Rail Yatri Sevaks” are deployed by the service provider. Their deployment is purely contractual in nature and no facilities viz. absorption in railway service, regularization of service, bonus, railway pass facilities etc. will accrue to the service provider or “Rail Yatri Sevaks”.

Government of the United Progressive Alliance, Report to the People 2010-11

14 projects have been approved during the year 2010-11 at an approved cost of Rs. 2,930.21 crore, and Additional Central Assistance (ACA) commitment of Rs. 1,073.61 crore, under the Urban Infrastructure & Governance component of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Since inception, a total of 530 projects have been approved.

13 projects have been approved during the year 2010-11, at an estimated cost of Rs. 101.89 crore, and ACA commitment of Rs. 90.45 crore under the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT).

Under the Basic Services to Urban Poor (BSUP) and the Integrated Housing & Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) components of the Mission, the focus is on housing and basic amenities to the urban poor, especially slumdwellers. Cumulative physical and financial progress of BSUP and IHSDP, as on 31.3.2011, is as follows:

More than 22 lakh houses, covering 1,517 projects, with an outlay of Rs. 40,301 crore have been sanctioned.

Grants by way of ACA to the tune of Rs. 21,770 crore have been committed and cumulative release of ACA by the end of the financial year 2010-11 was Rs. 10,625.27 crore.

64 mission cities have been covered under BSUP and 863 cities/towns have been covered under IHSDP.

8.6 lakh houses for the urban poor had either been completed or were in progress under BSUP and IHSDP, as on 31.3.2011.

Mass transport

During the last one year, a total of 73.3 kilometre of Metro lines was added in Delhi and other parts of the National Capital Region. With this, the total length of the Metro network in Delhi and NCR has become 186.72 kilometre. A new Metro project was taken up in Hyderabad for 71.16 kilometre, at an estimated cost of Rs. 12132 crore, besides the ongoing Metro projects of Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata (East-West Metro Corridor) and Mumbai. In addition to the above, ‘in principle’ approval has been given for Stage-1 of the Jaipur Metro Rail Project, to be implemented by the State government from its own resources. A total of 15,260 modern buses, enabled with Intelligent Transport System (ITS), were sanctioned for 61 cities under JNNURM. About 11,100 modern ITS-enabled buses have already been delivered. This has transformed the city transport scene across India.

Housing for the urban poor

Rajiv Awas Yojana: Rajiv Awas Yojana aims at ushering in a slum-free India by encouraging States / Union territories to tackle the problem of slums in a definitive manner. The scheme, which is at the final stages of formulation, envisages a new deal for slum-dwellers and the urban poor to give them access to basic amenities and affordable housing. It will extend support to States that are willing to assign property rights to slum-dwellers/urban poor.

The preparatory phase of Rajiv Awas Yojana has commenced. About Rs. 90 crore have been released to States/Union territories for slum-free city planning to enable them to undertake slum survey and Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping of slums and to prepare slum-free city/state plans.

Public-Private Partnership initiatives

67 projects, having Public-Private Partnership (PPP) components, have been approved under the Urban Infrastructure & Governance component of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

A Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council (CASAC) was formed on May 28, 2010 with the mandate to strengthen aviation safety environment through synergisation of available expertise in areas of airlines, airworthiness, operations, air navigation, aerodromes, aircraft engineering, human performance. Special invitees to the Council include FAA, ICAO Experts, IATA, Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier etc. This is an ongoing initiative under the Chairmanship of Secretary (Civil Aviation). The Council gets its technical inputs from working groups covering Operations (Fixed wing and helicopter sub-Groups), Aerodromes, Air Navigation Services, Airworthiness General Aviation and Helicopters. Based on the reassurance drive several issues in the three areas of aerodromes, operations and airworthiness came up. Immediate actions to address the deficiencies have been taken up during the past one year. Several safety related circulars have been issued and implementation ensured. These include presence of Cabin crew in cockpit in case of one pilot leaving the cockpit, Cabin Crew to interact with pilots on intercom during period of lean cockpit activity, in the event of incapacitation of PIC, copilot to take over control and in the event of PIC not responding to calls of copilot regarding ‘go around’, assertiveness by copilot to be encouraged. Regulatory provision for penal action for reporting for duty with alcohol consumption has been made. Pilots are being subjected to Breath Analyser test prior to flights. License are being suspended for three months in case of first BA positive and on second BA positive instance, the licence is cancelled.

In a move to step up the quality of training Captains, the period of Instructorship/ Examiner-ship has been restricted to 5 years with proficiency check every 2 years. Increased oversight for selection of trainers, quality of training imparted by trainers, integrity of simulator training have been introduced. Breath Analyser Test has been mandated for approval of Training Captains and Pilots with BA ‘positive’ report have been debarred from becoming Training Captains. Existing Training Captains if found BA ‘positive’ are debarred from training Captain list for three years.The process for approval of foreign pilots has been made stringent wherein background checks are being done to ensure that these pilots have accident free record. The experience requirements for the foreign pilots have been enhanced and the pilots are subjected to Proficiency Checks before approval is granted by DGCA. These pilots are being subjected to same medical standards as the Indian pilots.

Many of the issues relating to condition and facilities at aerodromes which came up during the reassurance drive of critical aerodromes have been taken up with Airports Authority of India as well as Defence authorities for immediate corrective action. These relate to Friction test for condition of the runway, markings, location of Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) for realignment with aiming point marking, adequacy of runway end safety area (RESA), Installation of localiser antenna frangible structures at identified airports of AAI, calibration of equipment such as ILS and VOR/DME In order to smoothen the licensing process, an Aerodromes Directorate has been set up in AAI with support staff. DGCA has undertaken a special drive for licensing of AAI airports. As on date, 42 airports for public use have been licensed by DGCA as against 29 in January 2011 of which 32 are AAI airports. There were 6 AAI licencsed airports in November 2010. The Committee set up by the Government to examine the Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) of crewmembers has submitted its report to the Government in September 2010. The report has been accepted and based on the recommendations of the Committee, a draft regulation has been prepared and comments invited. These comments are being reviewed for finalisation of the regulation.

Review of the recommendations made by the Court of Inquiry of the Mangalore crash has revealed that action has already been initiated by DGCA on the issues raised in the report by DGCA during the last one year and the organisation and the Government is sensitive to safety of aircraft operations. Government and DGCA are committed to sustain and enhance safety oversight system through proactive regulation making and its compliance by approved organizations. The real challenge today is to manage phenomenal growth of air traffic with safety.

Forty three service personnel and five civilians were killed in these accidents. Twenty civilians were injured.

Compensation as per extant Government order is paid for the service personnel killed and civilians killed/injured.

Each crash is investigated through a Court of Inquiry and remedial measures are undertaken accordingly to check their recurrence in future.

Phasing out of a particular aircraft and its replacement is decided based on operational requirements of the services, which is reviewed from time to time.

This information was given by Defence Minister Shri AK Antony in a written reply to Shri Ravindra Kumar Pandey & others in Lok Sabha.

Backgrounder

Ensuring the availability of potable drinking water in rural areas has been a major challenge. Keeping this in mind Rural drinking water has been one of the six components of Bharat Nirman, a major initiative by the Government of India to build rural infrastructuresince  2005. Phase I of  Bharat Nirman was implemented in the period 2005-06 to 2008-09 while the Phase II is being implemented from 2009-10 to 2011-12.

Status of Rural Drinking Water :

During Bharat Nirman Phase – I period, 55,067 un-covered and about 3.31 lakhslipped-back habitations were to be covered with provisions of drinking waterfacilities.Water quality problems in 2.17 lakh quality-affected habitations was to be addressed. While prioritizing the water quality problem, arsenic and fluoride affected habitations have been accorded priority followed by iron, salinity, nitrate and other contaminants.

Measures undertaken:

In order to ensure that habitations once provided with drinking water supply infrastructure do not slip back and face drinking water problem, sustainability of drinking water sources and systems has been accorded high priority. To achieve drinking water security at village/ habitation level, conjunctive use of water i.e. judicious use of rainwater, surface water and ground water is promoted. In order to enable the rural community to shoulder responsibility in management, operation and maintenance of water supply systems at village level, decentralized, demand-driven, community-managed approach has been adopted. To further strengthen community participation in the drinking water sector the National Rural Drinking Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance program was launched in February, 2006 under which 5 persons in each Gram Panchayat are to be trained to carry out regular surveillance of drinking water sources for which 100% financial assistance including water testing kits, are provided.

Physical Progress:

i) Uncovered habitations:

Against 55,067 un-covered habitations to be covered during the Bharat Nirman period, 54,440 habitations have been covered during Phase-I. During 2009-10, 377 habitations out of the 586 targetted habitations were covered . In 2010-11, 183 habitations have been reported as covered upto 31.12.2010 against the target of 376 habitations. The strategy adopted under the National Rural Drinking Water Program (NRDWP) is to cover all uncovered habitations to ensure that the rural population gets at least 40 lpcd (and additional 30 lpcd for cattle in DDP areas) of potable water from sources lying within the village or nearby.

ii) Quality-affected habitations:

More than 85% of the sources in rural drinking water supply schemes are ground-water based. Under the NRDWP, chemical contaminants which are sought to be tackled are excess arsenic, fluoride, iron, salinity and nitrate. Except for nitrate, all others occur naturally. Nitrate occurs in drinking water due to leaching of chemical fertilizers and sewerage. The strategy of the Department is to prioritize addressing the problems of arsenic and fluoride in drinking water through alternative surface water sources. The treatment technologies that are available for removal of excess arsenic and fluoride are still not foolproof in respect of reject management and operation & maintenance issues. Though a target of 2.17 lakh quality affected habitations was identified at the beginning of Bharat Nirman, the States submitted an action plan for covering only 1,95,813 such habitations.

Arsenic & Fluoride :

As on 1.04.2006, there were 7,067 habitations reported to be afflicted with arsenic and 29,070 habitations with fluoride contamination. Priority has been given to address the problems in these habitations. However, that due to expansion of testing, more areas are getting identified as having problems of quality.

Iron :

At the beginning of Bharat Nirman period there were 1,04,437 rural habitations affected with excess iron in drinking water sources. The focus is to tackle excess iron problem through aeration based technology or low-cost terra-cotta based filtration technique. States such as Karnataka and Orissa have already taken up the challenge of tackling this contamination through low-cost terracotta based filtration technology.

Salinity :

In respect of salinity, 12,425 habitations were having a problem at the beginning of BharatNirman period. Although there are a number of technologies like distillation, ion-exchange, reversible osmosis , electro-dialysis etc., these being expensive solutions the focus of the Department is to tackle this problem through dilution of groundwater through artificial recharge of groundwater.

Nitrate :

The strategy adopted to tackle excess nitrate in the drinking water is by improving the sanitary conditions. At the beginning of Bharat Nirman period, 19,387 habitations were afflicted with excess nitrate. As reported by the States, 3,10,698 quality affected habitations were addressed by sanctioned projects and of these 50,168 habitations have been fully covered with completed projects to provide safe water supply during Phase-I.

Status of Quality Affected Habitations :

As on 1.4.2009 at the beginning of Bharat Nirman phase-II states reported that 1,79,999quality affected habitations were remaining to be covered.  Of these during 2009-10,32,734and during 2010-11 upto 31.12.2010, 10,783 habitations have been reported as covered. Thus, in all during Bharat Nirman phase-I and II, 93,685 quality affected habitations have been fully covered with completed schemes. The goal of the Department is to cover all remaining water quality affected habitations with safe drinking water by the end of Phase-II (2009-12).

Financial Progress:

For the rural water supply, component of Bharat Nirman, it was envisaged that Rs.25,300 crores would be required as Central share during 4 years. Accordingly in 2005-06, Rs. 4,098 crores and in 2006-07 Rs. 4,560 crores were utilized. In the 11thPlan period, in 2007-08 , Rs.6,442.76 crores, in 2008-09 ,Rs. 7,298.79 crores and in 2009-10 , Rs. 7,989.72 crores have been utilized. Out of the total budget of Rs 9000 crore for rural drinking water in 2010-11 , amount worth Rs 6692.92 crore was utilized upto 31.12.2010.

It is expected that with the focus on reaching out to households, involvement of community and adopting technologies that are people friendly the objective of ensuring access to potable drinking water in rural areas under the National Rural Drinking Water Program (NRDWP) can be achieved.

The ILCS Scheme was initially started in 1980-81 through the Ministry of Home Affairs and later through Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The scheme was transferred in 1989-90 to Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation and from 2003-04 onwards to Ministry of UEPA/HUPA. The scheme has helped in constructing/converting over 28 lakh latrines to liberate over 60952 scavengers so far.

To make the Scheme more attractive and implementable the Guidelines have been revised with effect from 17^th January 2008.

At the time of revision of guidelines of the scheme the State of Assam, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and Uttar Pradesh together showed six lakh dry latrines. Later the State of Assam, Nagaland and Jammu Kashmir have declared that they have no dry latrines in their States. These figures changed during the implementation, after the house to house survey of all municipal areas for identification. Presently, the State of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have reported existence of dry latrine and funds have eventually been sought to eliminate these:

Presently, only states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Biharhave to declare themselves dry latrine free. The revised ILCS Scheme envisages conversion of all existing dry latrines within a period of three years (2007-2010). In the video conference held on September 28, 2010, with the representatives of States of Bihar, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, these states have assured that the conversion task will be completed by 31^st December 2010 and they would be able to declare themselves dry latrine free. The number of proposals sanctioned under the revised guidelines of ILCS as on 31.12.2010 is as below:

There was a budget provision of Rs. 71.00 crores for the financial year 2010-11 under the Scheme. An amount of Rs. 68.09 crore has been released so far to the States of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala. Under the revised guidelines of ILCS scheme 1% of the total Budget Estimates is earmarked for MIS, Monitoring System,Capacity Building and IEC Component. In the financial year 2010-11 Rs. 1.00 crore was earmarked for IEC component and an amount of Rs. 8.77 lakh has been released to the Institute of Social Sciences, Kolkata for conducting third party inspection of the projects sanctioned under the ILCS scheme.

With the present pace of implementation of revised ILCS scheme, it is expected that the inhuman practice of manual scavenging will be eradicated from the country.

At the same time, dry latrines have been converted into ‘Bahao’ latrines i.e. into pour flush pan connected not to septic tanks or underground pits but to open drains flowing through congested colonies. These Bahao latrines generally exist in economically depressed areas which are not slums but are either the older parts of towns or very congested old localities or villages within towns.

These unsanitary latrines require continuous cleaning, which is done by the municipal staff and almost always manually, with the most rudimentary of appliances, generally only a broom & folded sheet of metal. Since cleaning is often irregular, these unsanitary latrines clog the drains, causing the sludge and excreta in open drainage to spill out, especially in rainy weather and cause environmental and health hazards.

Through the ongoing Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor (ISHUP), a toilet facility which is integral to the new houses being constructed, is provided in all slum household being covered.

The Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty therefore, has mooted a proposal that the revised guidelines of ILCS Scheme be continued with the balance provision; with the objective of assisting Economically Weaker Section households to convert ‘bahao’ and other unsanitary latrines into twin pit pour flush latrines or latrines connected to biodigesters, septic tanks etc., with an approach that aims to make urban areas fully sanitation compliant. (PIB Features)

“We feel regular audit and usage of spectrum by various agencies is required. Whether it is the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) or the TRAI (Telecom regulatory authority of India), we have not decided yet,” Sibal said, reports IANS.

“All future licenses should be unified licenses and spectrum should be de-linked from licenses,” he added.

The Minister also said that the mergers and acquisition guidelines for the sector would have to be refurbished.

At present, there are 24 Science museums/Science centres functioning under the administrative control of National Council for Science Museum (NCSM). Two centers are in the State of Karnataka viz. (i) Visvesvaraya Industrial & technological Museum, Bangalore and (ii) District Science Centre, Gulbarga. Further, NCSM is presently engaged in the establishment of two centres at Dharwad and Pilikula, Mangalore in the state of Karnataka. In addition, 11 requests have been received from the Government of Karnataka for setting up Science centers in different districts of the State. NCSM will take up the new Science centre projects in the country in a phased manner and as per the priority set for implementation depending the density of Science centres in the respective States.

Ministry of Science and Technology does not provide any assistance to States for establishing ‘Science and Technology Centers’ in the States. However, National Council for Science Museum (NCSM), under the administrative control of Ministry of Culture, establishes Science Museums and Science Centers across the country for popularization of Science and Technology.

The coach factories of Indian Railways produced 3079 passenger coaches during the financial year 2010-11, which is again the highest ever production in a year since independence.

In a landmark performance, the Locomotive Production Units of Indian Railways also achieved highest ever production of 497 locomotives in the year 2010-11 which include 267 diesel locomotives and 230 electric locomotives. The record out put of diesel locomotives includes modern high horse power engines. The record production of electric engines includes green three phase drive locomotives which have regenerative capability of producing electric power during breaking of trains.

Indian Railways also geared up its efforts in a big way to achieve the highest ever scrap disposal worth Rs. 4408 crore in the financial year 2010-11. The performance on scarp disposal is not only more than the annual target but is also 25 per cent more than the previous best. Scrap disposal is a very long drawn affair requiring tremendous coordination, field work and monitoring. Prompt and efficient disposal of scrap generated with Zonal Railways/Railway Production Units/Workshops not only help in decongesting the work place thereby improving the efficiency/output also significantly unburden the capital mobilization for track works.

The highest ever performance since independence in the fields of rolling stock acquisition/production and scrap disposal, speaks volumes about vigorous efforts, capabilities and dedication of lakhs of railwaymen.

The Ministry of Railways last year took over the wagon producing PSU M/s. Braithwaite Company Limited so as to leverage its purchase power for revival of the company. During takeover, sufficient wagon orders have been placed with the company by the Ministry of Railways for gainful utilization of the manpower and assets of the company. The efforts of the company have been duly recognized and it has been awarded the BRPSE turn around award 2010 by the Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE).

As mentioned in Railways’ earlier press release, Railways recorded the highest ever achievement in construction of new line and doubling projects in the financial year 2010-11. Railways has achieved the construction of 709 kilometres of new lines in the year 2010-11, against the annual average of 180 kilometres new lines since independence. In case of doubling projects also, the progress during 2010-11 has been 769 kilometres, which is the highest ever and almost three times the average annual progress of 260 kilometres of doubling achieved since independence. Railways also completed 837 kilometres in gauge conversion in 2010-11 which is again more than the target of 834 kilometres.

The highlight of wagon procurement is that some upgrades in wagons that had eluded Railways for almost a decade have now been applied for the first time. The availability of sufficient number of wagons would help enhance and improve freight movement across Indian Railways thereby accelerating country’s economic growth.

The highlight of diesel locomotive production is the focus on manufacturing most modern high horse power (4500 HP) locomotives while in the case of electrical locomotives, modern green three-phase drive locomotives with regenerative capability of producing electric power during breaking of trains are being manufactured along with conventional locomotives. In case of passenger coaches, production of LHB type stainless steel modern coaches has been stepped up.

Indian Railways also geared up its efforts in a big way to achieve the highest ever scrap disposal worth Rs. 4408 crore in the financial year 2010-11. The performance on scarp disposal is not only more than the annual target but is also 25 per cent more than the previous best.

The highest ever performance since independence in the fields of rolling stock acquisition/production and scrap disposal, speaks volumes about vigorous efforts, capabilities and dedication of lakhs of railwaymen.

The Railways could achieve this feat as it set very ambitious all time high target of 1000 kilometers of new lines in one year (2010-11), which was firs time ever a major jump in view of Railways’ limited resources. The ambitious target proved to be great motivation in achieving this record setting feat in new line construction.

In case of doubling projects also, the progress during 2010-11 has been 769 kilometres, which is the highest ever and almost three times the average annual progress of 260 kilometres of doubling achieved since independence. This is also more than the target fixed for the said fiscal. In case of gauge conversion, Railways completed 837 kilometres in 2010-11 which is again more than the target of 834 kilometres.

The overall achievement in construction of new lines, gauge conversion and doubling projects during 2010-11 has been 2315 kilometres, which is also the highest ever achieved in a year since independence.

Therefore, all previous records have been surpassed during 2010-11 in the area of network expansion.

In case of electrification of lines, Railways have completed 972 kilometres route during the year 2010-11 which is again more than the average annual target of electrification planned during the XI plan. In addition, approximately 254 kilometres of lines have been electrified as part of works of doubling, 3rd and 4th line and other traffic facilities.

FOR MORE READING. . .

For provision of VPTs, two Agreements were signed by  M/s  Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) with subsidy support from Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund. The first was on November 2004 to provide subsidy support for provision of VPTs in 62302number of uncovered villages in the country excluding those villages having population less than 100, those lying in deep forests and those affected with insurgency. The second Agreement was signed with BSNL on 27.02.2009 for provision of VPTs  in all the remaining 62443 inhabited villages as on 01.10.2007 as per Census 2001 irrespective of criteria of population, remoteness, accessibility and law & order situations. The remaining villages are expected to be covered through VPTs by February, 2012.

State-wise numbers of VPTs provisioned as on 31.01.2011 including VPTs under

Bharat Nirman and VPTs in newly identified villages

There are no specific rural obligations defined in Internet Service Provider (ISP) Licence agreement.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has provided 7, 70,000 connections in rural areas as on 31.1.2011. The details of State-wise broadband subscribers including urban and rural areas Circle-wise connections are as given below.

BROADBAND SUBSCRIBERS (STATE-WISE) AS ON NOVEMBER 2010

*Includes Noida, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Faridabad

**includes Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland & Tripura

Rural Broadband Connections provided by BSNL (as on 31^stJanuary, 2011)

A total grid interactive renewable power generation capacity of around 18842 MW has been set up as on 31.01.2011, which is over 11% of the total power generation installed capacity from all sources in the country.

The initial capital investment in renewable energy projects is generally high and their viability is very much region / site specific. As such, the cost of renewable power generation is generally higher in comparison with the traditional sources.

Research, design and development (RD&D) efforts are underway globally, including in this country, driven mainly by industry, to develop technologies/processes that help to align the unit cost of power generation from renewable energy sources, especially solar, to that of conventional power generation. The Ministry is supporting such efforts under its R&D programme, with CFA up to 100% of project cost to Universities, research institutions, R&D laboratories and industry, for achieving well-defined specific outputs.

As I write these lines, it appears that Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant is moving towards a core meltdown as it has lost control of the cooling system. An explosion has blown the wall of one of the buildings there and radioactive iodine and caesium has been vented from the plant. The Fukushima Daini plant, about 10 km from the Daiichi plant, is also moving in the same direction with a similar loss of control of the cooling system, but without release of radio activity as yet. Both these plants belong to Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

The Fukushima Daichi plant has 6 reactors of which 3 were out for normal inspections before the earthquake. Three running reactors are 460 MW (Unit 1) and 784 MW (Units 2&3) and are about 35 years old. Once the earthquake hit Japan, the three running units were tripped safely. However, with the units going off-grid due to grid failure, the only power available for safety system operations was the emergency diesel generating sets and battery power. The tsunami which hit the plant one hour after the earthquake seems to have taken out the emergency DG sets, he only power now available in the plant is battery power.

Once a reactor is shut down, the fuel rods still generate heat and must be cooled. This is where the problem in both these plants started – in both plants the cooling pumps seemed to have lost power. The battery power allows valves and controls to operate for another 8 hours after which all controls of the plant would be lost. Once the cooling power is lost, the nightmare scenario of a meltdown starts.

The Japanese authorities have declared a nuclear emergency in both these plants – the first time that such an emergency has been declared in Japan. In the Daiichi plant, the evacuation radius was initially 3 km and then expanded to 10 km and now to 20 km. More than 46,000 people have been evacuated from the Daiichi plant area, and another 100,000 people may have to be evacuated now. The Daini plant, which has 4 reactors, has also declared a nuclear emergency and evacuation is under way in a 3 km radius.

What is happening currently is that due to heat build-up within the reactor, steam is being vented out periodically. This means radioactive material is being released, first in the containment building and later reaching outside the plant. But the explosion makes clear that controlled release did not succeed or at some point there was not enough coolant left in the reactor core. This would explain the explosion, which Fukushima prefecture now says has blown the roof of the reactor has collapsed. TV and press reports indicate that the outer walls of the reactor building has also been blown off.

All this brings out the nightmare scenario of a complete core meltdown. As the fuel rods continue to heat up, they will melt at some point, first the metal cladding of the ceramic encased fuel pellets, then the ceramic pellets themselves. At this point, the containment vessel should hold the radioactive release, however already this is a huge disaster. Managing this is a complex operation for the future. The key issue, will the containment hold. The explosion in the reactor building might well be that it has not. The explosion seems to have been caused by hydrogen accumulation inside the containment building. Has it breached the containment building is yet not known. The final disaster is if the molten fuel rods go through the floor of the containment building, in which case it would explode in a mass of steam and radioactive material. This has never happened till date is an extremely unlikely scenario. This was the theme of the film, The China Syndrome.

The conditions in the Daini plant is currently better, but it still is in a critical state. In both these plants, coolant is being injected manually to maintain the coolant levels.

The accident shows that nuclear plants need to have a number of fail safe devices and layers of protection. In this context, should India be looking at untested and untried designs of the Jaitapur type needs to be seriously examined. Fukushima has posed serious questions already to the nuclear industry and only the foolhardy would rush in with completely unknown designs that Areva is pushing on India.

• Induction of open and covered wagons of new design which have better pay-to-tare ratio and higher carrying capacity per rake.
• Upgradation of existing types of wagons to increase carrying capacity.
• Introduction of longer freight trains on trial basis to improve throughput.

Strategy adopted include rationalization of freight structure, levy of demand management charges like busy season charge, congestion charge for traffic, dynamic pricing policy for export iron ore and freight incentive schemes etc.

Revenue earned from freight services for the year 2007-08 was Rs. 47434.90 crore; in 2008-09 it was Rs. 53433 crore; in 2009-10 it was Rs.58501.68 crore and during 2010-11 (upto January 2011 approx.) it was Rs. 50494.43.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways, Shri Bharatsinh Solanki in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha