Facelift for 82 roads in Delhi planned

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is all set to give roads leading to Commonwealth Games 2010 venues a facelift, beginning with the Lodhi Road stretch. This will serve as an example of what roads in Delhi will look like before the Games. The tenders for improvement and beautification of this 2.11km stretch have already been floated and this pilot project will cost the civic agency Rs 5 crore.The project will include general improvement of the road length from India Habitat Centre to roundabout at Nizamuddin. A cycle-track will also be made along the road. Touch-screens, information kiosks will be put up and food stalls and public conveniences will also be made at the junctions along the stretch.Work on the stretch should be completed by December. The MCD has come up with a plan to improve and give a facelift to 82 roads around the Games venues. This includes areas like Lodhi Road, GT Road, Shahdara etc. Moreover, 19 flyovers constructed by them will also be beautified by planting trees around them. A cycle-track would also be made along the service-lane which would merge into the road when the service-road ends. Different colours for the cycle-track would be used so that vehicular traffic does not encroach on it. The resurfacing of the road and creating footpath would also be done along the stretch. At each junction, information kiosks, phone booths, food stalls, traffic signs, police booths etc would be there so that a person does not have to walk all the way back in case he drives by the place.The MCD would make the stretch disabled-friendly by making a slope along the footpaths and would put up tech tiles so that the visually-challenged can find their way around without much help. Besides this, rainwater harvesting and planting of trees would also be done, alongwith putting up benches and energy-saving street-lights.

India out of Trillion Dollar Market Cap Club

All thanks to the falling stock market and weakening rupee, India just slipped out of the elite league of countries with a trillion-dollar market capitalisation. As the rupee-dollar rate fell to 43.30 and BSE’s market cap fell another Rs 1.74 lakh crore to 41.58 lakh crore, in dollar terms this is equivalent to $966 billion. In January this year, BSE’s market cap had peaked at $1.9 trillion. It was in May 2007, in the middle of a bull rally and a strengthening economy, when India had become a trillion dollar market for the first time. At that time the rupee was around the 40.50 level to the dollar, the sensex hovered between the 13,000 and 14,000 mark, crude was near the $70-per-barrel level and the economy was set to cruise at about 8.5-9% rate every year.Factors which dictate the market have changed drastically since then, especially in the last six months, market players said. Bears have now taken charge of the market and pulled the sensex to below the 13,000 mark now, crude prices have more than doubled to over $140-per barrel and the rupee has depreciated to far below the 43 mark. And there are all the signs that the economy’s as well as corporate growth rates would now slow down.At present, there are about 12 countries in the trillion-dollar market cap league. The list is topped by NYSE with a market cap of over $15 trillion. Other bourses are Tokyo ($4.3 trillion), EuroNext ($3.9 trillion), London ($3.5 trillion), Nasdaq ($3 trillion), Shanghai ($2.6 trillion), Hong Kong ($2.3 trillion) and Deutsche Boerse (about $2 trillion). Bourses in Australia, Spain, Switzerland, Korea and OMX Nordic Bourses also have a trillion dollar market cap.

Shiv Sena to back N-Deal?

As the UPA-Left stand-off over the Indo-US nuclear deal continued, the Shiv Sena said party chief Bal Thackeray will play a “crucial” role in the unfolding political crisis. The statement by party spokesman Sanjay Raut, MP, came at a time when the Congress is desperately seeking support from new parties and groups in the wake of threats by the Left to withdraw support over the nuke deal.Giving mixed signals, Raut said his party considered that the deal was in national interest, but it would not do anything that would be a setback to the NDA of which the Sena with 13 MPs in the Lok Sabha is a constituent.

Tyson India

Diversified company Godrej Industries Ltd said its unit Godrej Agrovet Ltd, through Godrej Foods, has formed a joint venture with Tyson India Holdings Ltd. Godrej Foods will hold 49% in the venture, in which Tyson India, a unit of Tyson Foods Inc. of the US, will hold the remaining. Godrej Agrovet has transferred its poultry business to its unit, Godrej Foods, it added.

Karnataka targets Rs.1,20,000 Crore IT Revenues by 2011

Top software industry leaders have presented a blueprint to the BJP government in Karnataka for the revitalisation of the information technology and biotech industries in the state to more than double revenue from the sectors to Rs 1,20,000 crore by 2011.One of the key components of the blueprint is the creation of four new hubs of 500 acres each around Bangalore exclusively for companies in the IT, BT and health sectors, with industry and government jointly buying land from farmers at market rates.Access to land in and around Bangalore for expansion, along with the city’s well-documented infrastructure crisis, have been long-standing concerns for IT companies. Applications for land allotment by top names such as Infosys and Wipro have been hanging fire even as they step up investments at locations outside Karnataka.Karnataka’s leadership in the IT sector appears to be under serious threat, with software exports from the state growing by just 11% during 2007-08, compared to Andhra Pradesh’s 41%, Tamil Nadu 37% and the national average of 29%.Bangalore’s technology sector employs some 6 lakh people, nearly a tenth of the city’s total population.The revitalisation blueprint envisages an autonomous empowered authority to give all permissions and approvals for what it calls the ‘IT-BT-Health cities.’A high-power committee consisting of members from the government and industry will be formed to negotiate and finalise the land procurement, it says.In addition a monitoring panel headed by the state’s IT minister and including representatives from government and industry has been suggested. Software companies are wary of property developers and real-estate companies developing technology parks and would prefer instead to set up campuses on their own. The IT industry wants the four new hubs to be located along the proposed peripheral ring road around Bangalore, which is being taken up at a cost of about Rs 3,000 crore.To give a thrust to the new government’s policy of developing tier II and tier-III cities as magnets for technology companies, the IT industry is asking for a special investment of Rs 500 crore each in Mysore and the port city of Mangalore in three years. It also wants an ‘electronic city’ to be established on 1,000 acres of land in Mysore on the lines of the main technology hub on the outskirts of Bangalore.A similar integrated IT-BT-Health city is envisaged for the twin cities of Hubli-Dharwad to be set up under a public-private partnership. For the northern cities of Belgaum and Gulbarga, it wants ‘electronic cities’ which will help generate large-scale local employment for business process outsourcing companies.Karnataka’s new IT minister, Katta Subramanya Naidu, has asked technology companies to fan out to the state’s smaller towns and cities to generate local employment and to ease the strain on Bangalore, which is groaning under poor infrastructure and problems with land acquisition.Software companies say they are ready to invest in other parts of the state, but the government must provide adequate infrastructure and access to human resources in these areas.

Navi Mumbai wants a Metro and Monorail

Navi Mumbai wants a swanky Metro project to connect different nodes of the city. Officials of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) submitted proposals for Metro rail and Monorail projects to Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) . The proposal has been drafted by the NMMC in consultation with Maharashtra government’s infrastructure arm City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) which has developed the neighbouring township. The MMRDA would have a close look at the proposal and may commission a feasibility survey as well.The NMMC hit upon the idea of metro rail project looking at the prospective industrial and economic activity in Navi Mumbai and beyond.Making a strong pitch for metro rail and monorail projects, NMMC officials have projected city needs on the basis of two special economic zones coming up in and around Navi Mumbai — the proposed international airport near Kalamboli, and the central business district in Belapur which houses government as well as corporate houses. The official referred to one of the proposed metro rail corridors between Mankhurd in Greater Mumbai and Panvel near Navi Mumbai which mainly proposes to connect the island city with the new airport.

The Deccan SkyLimo

In what could be India’s first, Bangalore will see helicopter service within the city. The distinction goes to Captain Gopinath’s Deccan Aviation. The much-awaited chopper service from BIA to various points in the city will take off on July 2. The service was initially scheduled to start operations on the same day as BIA. With everyone complaining about poor road connectivity to BIA, this could be a welcome option.A Bell 206 Jet Ranger will be deployed for the service, called Deccan Skylimo, and will begin operations from BIA to Electronic City, Whitefield and HAL. “Helicopter service to Palace Grounds will be added shortly,” said a company release. The price for a one-way journey from BIA to Electronics City would be Rs 5,800 and from BIA to HAL Rs 4,800. This would include a cab pick-up at the terminal building to ferry passengers to the heliport, which is just a kilometre away from the airport. The charter service will start at 6.30 am and the last drop to BIA will be at 6 pm daily, with regular frequency. Passengers availing of the service would be able to book tickets at a designated ticketing counter at the airport or at the heliport. Tickets could also be purchased at Deccan Aviation’s head office at Jakkur aerodome.