Amaravati to get three ring roads

If Chandrababu Naidu has his way, Amaravati will be turned into another Beijing. Three ring roads -inner, outer and regional -proposed to connect Amaravati will change the face of the capital city region.
Once the ring road is completed, it will provide direct access to Amaravati from Gannavaram airport. The inner ring road (IRR) will help to ease traffic congestion on the national highway passing through Vijayawada. The CM said development of the capital region is possible with better road connectivity . He examined the blueprint and gave his final nod.
While 94.5 km IRR will have a radius of 15 km the core capital city , outer ring road (ORR) in 25-km radius is being planned to cover 150 km.The regional ring road (RRR) which covers almost the entire capital city region will have a radius of 34 km with a length of nearly 210 km. “The RRR project alone is expected to cost Rs.8,000 crore as the state government will be acquiring nearly 7,000 acres from farmers,“ a senior CRDA official said.
The proposed IRR will cover nearly 1.36 lakh acres in the core capital, while ORR will cover 4.73 lakh acres. The gigantic RRR will spread its span over nine lakh acres in the capital city region. The Centre had agreed to fund RRR, while the state government is contemplating to take up IRR with its own resources and eyeing to garner central funds for ORR. All the ring roads will connect Krishna and Guntur districts with two iconic bridges each on river Krishna. IRR will pass through Tadikonda, Chinakakani, Pedavadlapudi, Tadigadapa, Enikepadu, Nunna, Gollapudi, Ibrahimpatnam, and connect Tadikonda.

India inks 145 howitzers deal

India inked the “letter of agreement and acceptance“ with the US on Wednesday for the $737 million (almost Rs.5,000 crore) acquisition of 145 M-777 ultra-light howitzers in a government-to-government deal. The howitzer contract will also further consolidate the position of the US as one of the largest arms suppliers to India, which having bagged deals worth over $15 billion since 2007.
Of the 145 M-777 howitzers to be delivered from mid-2017 onwards, 120 will be “assembled, integrated and tested“ in India with artillery-manufacturer BAE Systems selecting Mahindra as its business partner here.

Toll collection set to resume

Govt forms panel on digital economy

Former UIDAI chief Nandan Nilekani has been roped in by the BJP government as a special invitee in the 13-member committee of chief ministers, representing different political outfits, set up to promote digital payment systems, mainly in rural areas, after the Centre scrapped high-value currency notes.
The panel, headed by TDP boss and Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu, also has BJD chief and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, chief minister of MP Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Sikkim CM Pawan Kumar Chamling and V Narayanasamy, who is heading the Congress government in Puducherry , as members. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is also a member of the committee along with NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya.
However, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who has backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation move and irked opposition parties, is not on the panel. Other special invitees in the committee are Janmejaya Sinha, chairman, Boston Consulting Group, Rajesh Jain, managing director, netCORE, Sharad Sharma, co-founder, iSPIRIT and Jayant Varma, professor (finance), IIM (Ahmedabad).
The high-powered panel is mandated to identify global best practices for implementing an economy primarily based on digital payment and examine the possibility of adoption of these global standards in the Indian context. The panel will also outline measures for rapid expansion and adoption of the system of digital payments like cards (debit, credit and pre-paid), digital-wallets e-wallets, internet banking, unified payments interface (UPI), banking apps, etc and shall broadly indicate the roadmap to be implemented in one year. The Naidu-led panel will also prepare an action plan to list the benefits of a digital economy.

Green plan for Maharashtra's national highways

The 10,624 km of national highways in Maharashtra are in for a greening. The state government and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have signed an MoU for afforestation alongside the highways.
The Ministry of Road Transport has in its Green Highways Policy 2015 provided for creation of green corridors along national highways. The policy document spells out the criteria for plantation of trees and shrubs, taking into account visibility for traffic visibility. It states that the parties entering an agreement should adhere to norms for planting trees on curves and the minimum distance to be maintained.
Forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said the state government had taken up tree plantation along national highways as a mission.“There is only one planet in the universe where life exists.Human life exists only because of trees,“ said minister. Among the trees that have been shortlisted for plantation include neem, tamarind tree, coconut tree, bamboo, ber, custard apple and babul.
The countrywide project envisages planting trees on 4 lakh acres along national highways in 10 years.




Union Cabinet approves MUTP III

In five years, commuters travelling between Kalyan and Vashi/Panvel won't have to break their journey , like they do now at Thane now. Besides, there will be more local trains between Churchgate and Dahanu Road.For, the Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) Phase-III on Wednesday .
According to railway officials, “The estimated cost of project is Rs.8,679 crore with the completion cost of Rs 10,947 crore. The project is expected to be completed in the next 5 years during the 13th Plan period.“
MUTP-III will augment tracks and provide amenities to prevent people from crossing tracks.
Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation's (MRVC) chairman and managing director Prabhat Sahai said, “We will soon invite tenders for various works under MUTP-III so that the contractors are selected by the time we complete negotiations with the World Bank, which is likely to extend a loan.“ Both MUTP I and MUTP II are funded by the World Bank.
Under MUTP III, a 3-km long Airoli-Kawla link will be constructed at a cost of Rs.450 crore. It will provide commuters travelling between Kalyan and Panvel straight train, thus reducing congestion at Thane station. Now, Kalyan-Panvel passengers have to get down at Thane and take another train.
Besides, WR will quadruple the tracks between Dahanu Road and Virar. At present, WR's suburban services run on double line between Virar and Dahanu Road, which is a part of the main line Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Delhi route. The main line is already oversaturated and there is no scope for supplementing suburban services on this line.
According to the railways, the construction of an additional double line between Virar and Dahanu Road will address the demand of commuters in this region. This will provide extension of suburban services from Churchgate to Dahanu Road.
Besides, the Panvel-Karjat double line project will be executed. This will provide alternative route between Karjat and CST via Panvel. It will be shorter by 23 km than the existing route via Kalyan and will reduce slow trains' travel time between CST and Karjat by around 40 minutes.
Under MUTP-III, procurement of new coaches will enhance the quality of service and reduce congestion. The works proposed under trespass control at 22 locations are expected to significantly reduce trespass and provide safer environment for the public.

GDP rises 7.3%

The Indian economy stayed the world's fastest growing major economy in the July-September quarter, expanding at 7.3%. But the outlook for the quarters ahead is clouded by the impact of the demonetisation drive. While farm sector, which expanded 3.3%, powered the Q2 growth, manufacturing slowed to 7.1% compared to a 9.1% expansion in the April-June quarter. Economists said demonetisation could see growth for the full year slowing down to 7%.
The economy grew an annual 7.3% in the July-September quarter, marginally faster than previous quarter's expansion of 7.1%. It grew 7.6% in the July-September 2015-16. The July-September quarter is the second quarter (Q2) of the country's fiscal year which starts in April.
Growth was powered by the farm sector, which grew an annual 3.3% during Q2 compared to 1.8% expansion in the previous quarter. Manufacturing sector growth slowed to 7.1% in July-September compared to 9.1% expansion in April-June quarter. The 7.3% GDP growth in the second quarter is higher than China's 6.7% growth. Economists said growth for the full year could slow to 7% due to impact of the government's decision to scrap some high value notes. The government has said that it expects the impact to last for about two quarters before growth comes back on track.There are varying estimates of how demonetisation will dent economic growth.
The finance ministry's chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian said the government was analysing data against the backdrop of uncertainty in the second half of the fiscal year.
Asked about the impact of demonetisation in the quarters ahead, he said it will be subject to some amount of uncertainty.