Somewhere on the Agra Expressway....

 

Some of the most formidable fighters from the Indian Air Force fleet showed their manoeuvres before landing on the specially developed 3.3-km stretch of the Lucknow-Agra Expressway near Bangarmau of Unnao district.

People from villages along the expressway, apart from special guests, watched Sukhoi-30s, Mirage 2000s, Jaguars and the show-stopper C130J Super Herculeus carry out landing on the country's longest expressway. The 302-km-long ex pressway was closed from both ends since Monday for the exercise. Fifteen aircraft took part in the exercise.

The show started with the arrival of C130J Super Hercules, which dropped Garud commandos and their vehicle on the airstrip. The C130J is a US-origin military transport, aerial refuelling and loader aircraft, equipped with emergency backup resources. The aircraft needs a small stretch of runway to land or takeoff.

Once the Hercules took off for the Hindon air base in Ghaziabad, three Mirage 2000s, under the Tiger Squadron, flew past and re turned for a touch-and-go, before the final touchdown. Then a set of three more Mirage 2000 aircraft, known as the Crossbow Squadron, made a similar manoeuvre. The aircraft had taken off from the Gwalior air base.

Soon, two Sukhoi 30s, followed by another three, carried out a flypast and returned for a touchdown before flying back to Bareilly .

The final part of the show was three Jaguar aircraft.The `vic' formation called Arrow, took off from the Gorakhpur air base.

The show ended with the Hercules returning to pick Garud commandos.

This was the second time, since its inauguration in November last year, that the eway played host to fighter aircrafts. Air Marshal AS Butola said more such exercise would be carried out in the future.

Protests broke out by Samajwadi Party members, who alleged that the BJP-led Centre was trying to claim credit for the work done by Akhilesh Yadav. After the inauguration of the e-way last November, BSP chief Mayawati had accused the SP of trying to steal credit for what she claimed was her project.

NaMu Airport gets final nod

Eight months after Cidco, nodal authority for the Navi Mumbai airport project, closed the finance bid with GVK-led Mumbai International Airport Ltd, the state cabinet approved the award to the highest bidder, paving the way for formation of a special purpose vehicle to build the Rs.16,000 crore airport.
The cabinet endorsed the techno-economic approval given by the project management implementation committee, headed by chief Secretary, last week on October 18--a day before Diwali. Cidco senior PRO Mohan Ninawe said, “The cabinet was scheduled to meet October 31 (to discuss the issue), but it has the given final approval before that.“

MIAL offered a 12.6% share in annual gross revenue to Cidco against the 10.44% offered by its rival GMR Airports in the financial bid that was closed on February 13, 2017. As per Cidco consultants, the passenger count is expected in the first year of operation at 15 million, which will increase to 30 million in 2025 and to 40 million in 2030.The maximum count is pegged at 60 million in 2035.

The state cabinet nod, the last of the approvals required for the greenfield mega project, is the official sanction to the project to be undertaken in phases.The first phase involves an investment of around Rs.7,000 crore with the first flight take off scheduled for 2020.

The cabinet nod will be followed with Cidco forwarding the letter of award (appointment) to MIAL, said Cidco joint MD Prajakta Lavangare Verma. The next step will be formation of the SPV. The new company will be a joint venture of GVK-led MIAL having 74% and Cidco 24% of equity participation. Cidco will apportion a certain percentage of its earnings to the Airports Authority of India, said Ninawe.

Maharashtra Cabinet nod for Metro V and VI

The Maharashtra cabinet gave the green light for two Metro corridors--Metro V (Thane-Bhiwandi-Kalyan) and Metro VI (Swami Samarth Nagar (Andheri west)-Jogeshwari-Vikhroli). The cabinet has given in principle approval for Metro VI and has sought a detailed project report. The two elevated corridors will have interchanges with existing and under-construction Metro corridors and also with the suburban railway network in the city.

The 14.47-km Metro VI corridor, which will have 13 stations, is likely to be constructed by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. It will be an extension to Metro IIA (D N Nagar-Dahisar), resulting in a total 33 km network providing east-west connectivity. “This corridor will connect business hubs like Seepz, L&T and IIT-Powai areas. It is expected to be completed by 2021 and nearly 6.5 lakh commuters are likely to use it daily,“ said a Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority official, adding minimum fare will be Rs.10 and maximum be Rs.30. The car depot for the project has been planned at Kanjurmarg.

Of the estimated Rs.6,716 crore Metro VI project cost, MMRDA will fund Rs.3,195 crore, state Rs.1,820 crore, and the rest will be raised as loans.

The 24-km Metro V corridor (Thane-Bhiwandi-Kalyan) will link neighbouring cities to Mumbai and have 17 stations. The project cost has been pegged at around Rs.8,240 crore and is expected to be completed by 2021. Around 2.3 lakh daily commuters are expected to benefit from this corridor, which will be connected to two other proposed routes--Metro IV(Wadala-Thane-Kasarwadavli) and Metro XI (Taloja-Kalyan).

According to MMRDA officials, a total of 360 km-long Metro network will be constructed across the state, most of which will be in Mumbai and adjoining cities, in the next four to five years.

Biggest-ever highway plan

The government is set to approve the biggest ever highway plan to develop and expand approximately 83,000 km of roads at an investment of Rs.6.9 lakh crore by 2022. The proposal on the Cabinet's agenda is aimed at pushing economic activity and generating at least 32 crore mandays across the country in the next five years.

The announcement will include the new 28,400 km Bharatmala highway programme connecting border areas, improving international, port and coastal connectivity besides improving highway corridors connecting key economic and commercial hubs, besides at least 800 km of expressways. Sources said the focus of the entire plan is to improve speed of traffic flow on key corridors by providing uniform four-lane roads between two identified points. Most of these corridors will be shorter and access-controlled for faster movement of cargo vehicles.

Due to poor road conditions, narrow width and congestion points, a truck in India covers on an average 250-300 km daily in comparison to 700-800 km in developed countries.

This will perhaps be the biggest government announcement before the upcoming assembly elections. According to the ministry's estimates, construction of 10,000 km of highways annually has the potential of generating four crore mandays and the mega highway development programme can be used to counter the allegation that the government has failed to create employment opportunities.

Considering there is less appetite for private investment, sources said, more than 70% of the works will be through government funding. About one-third of the investment will come from fuel cess, over one-fourth from market borrowing and the rest from budgetary support, private investment and auctioning of completed highways.

Government looks to hike minimum internet speed

Days of low internet speed on mobile and broadband networks could soon be over. The government has kick-started the process of giving a boost to the minimum mandated internet speed from existing 512 kbps to at least 2 mbps and more.

Telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan said the government was mindful of slow internet speed experienced by internet users in many parts of the country. Internet speeds are nowhere close to the numbers promised by companies in 3G and 4G data packs and advertisements. And, the issue is critical as India prepares for rollout of 5G services as well as a host of other applications focused around internet-of-things (IoT).

The telecom secretary said India required faster speeds in the wake of gradual transformation of the country into a digital economy . These include initiatives such as smart cities, digital India programmes, efforts on digital payments, and 5G.

The issue of slower internet speed has been a painful experience for a majority of mobile customers, especially when download speeds for videos and other such services is nowhere near the satisfactory level. All this is happening at a time when telecom companies are rolling out faster 4G networks across the country, a move that has gained pace after the launch of services by Reliance Jio in September last year. Older telecom companies, however, have been averse to the idea of having a higher threshold when it comes to internet speed.

However, they are cold to criticism -levelled in many quarters -that investments in boosting mobile network infrastructure have been weak.

A recent global report based on over 63 million internet speed tests across the world ranked India at 119th position in a list of 189 countries where the tests were conducted. The report by Cable.co.uk said to download a 7.5 GB HD film, it will take only 18 minutes and 34 seconds in top-ranked Singapore and under 30 minutes in Sweden and Taiwan, but the same would take a little over 8 hours and 16 minutes in India.

Connectivity with South, Southeast Asia

India is considering a series of projects aimed at strengthening links with South Asia and between the region and Southeast Asia. This comes at a time when South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is losing steam amid Pakistan's intransigence over connectivity pacts and China is seeking to increase its influence in the region.

The proposals under consideration include mega cross-border air and land connectivity projects, along with power and energy initiatives. Some of these projects were part of the agenda when external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj met her Bangladeshi counterpart Mahmud Ali in Dhaka on Sunday.

These included proposals for Dhaka-Chennai-Colombo air connectivity, Chittagong-Kolkata-Colombo shipping connectivity , Bangladesh-North Bengal rail link, Bangladesh-Bhutan internet cables through India, trade route connecting Nakugaon Land Port in Bangladesh to Gayleyphung in Bhutan via India. Besides, efforts are on implement the BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal) motor vehicles agreement soon, while keeping a provision for Bhutan to join later. Bhutan had requested to join later since its upper house of parliament failed to ratify the pact.

Regional connectivity heads the agenda for the Narendra Modi government because China is expanding its footprint in South Asia and Southeast Asia through its One Belt One Road initiative.

The BBIN MVA will complement the proposed BIMSTEC MVA, which is expected to be the key outcome of the seven-nation summit to be held in Nepal early next year to celebrate 20 years of creation of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation. The BIMSTEC MVA will have all multimodal features connecting Sri Lanka, which has so far been connected to the six members of the grouping only through air or sea. The two agreements are a critical part of India's Act East policy, which is aimed at enabling strengthening of ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN in the periphery of China.

BIMSTEC is also mulling connectivity through cruise liners to promote tourism and coastal shipping between the member states.This will facilitate India's Bay of Bengal outreach, complementing its Indian Ocean Region strategy .

Kashmir Talks Begin

Dineshwar Sharma, a former Intelligence Bureau chief has been appointed by the Narendra Modi government as its interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir, home minister Rajnath Singh announced.
He said Sharma would have “complete freedom“ to talk to “all groups and individuals“and has been accorded a cabinet secretary rank.

After the announcement, Sharma went and met the home minister and discussed how to go about his assignment.

Explaining why the government had gone for the interlocutor, Rajnath Singh said there had been suggestions from across the political spectrum that the government should hold dialogue with all revelant parties.

Singh has visited J-K several times in the last three years -five times in the last year alone, and had recently talked about coming up with a permanent solution to the J-K problem.

He said the move was a follow-up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day speech in August where he had stressed the need to reach out to people.

“As a representative of the government of India, Dineshwar Sharma will initiate a sustained interaction and dialogue to understand legitimate aspirations of people in Jammu and Kashmir,“ the home minister said. He added that there was no bar on him to talk to one group and not another. “We want to understand aspirations of people of Jammu and Kashmir,“ the minister said.

Home ministry officials said the move was part of a three step process adopted by the centre to address the situation inthe valley.“We have strengthened our security. The implementation of the development package is going on well too so the only thing left was to start a dialogue which will happen,“ an official said. He added that Sharma was the first choice for the assignment and several meetings had been held to take the matter forward.

In the last few months the centre has beem focussing on cracking down on foreign funding for separatists and in Srinagar, police and army teams have taken out dozens of local commanders of terrorist groups active in the Kashmir Valley .

Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti welcomed the move. “Dialogue is a necessity of the hour and the only way to go forward,“ she said.

Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, however, said he would “keep an open mind and wait to see results of the dialogue process.“

Before this, Journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, NN Vora, academician Radha Kumar and former Information Commissioner MM Ansari were appointed as India's interlocutors to Kashmir.