We salute....

We the citizens of India salute our armed forces, the police, the Anti Terror Squad, the NSG, Fire Brigade.....without whom we would have not overcome these terrorists.We shall never forget those who laid down their lives for the well being of our motherland.

Hyderabad BRTS snippets

With road widening being the main problem among others for a Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in Hyderabad, the state government has now proposed a BRTS in the surrounding areas of the city to ease congestion and improve connectivity. A BRTS has been proposed from Rethibowli to Kukatpally via Gachibowli covering about 19 km and another from Mehdipatnam to Uppal, a distance of about 20 km to connect the Inner Ring Road (IRR) and Outer Ring Road (ORR). The state government has decided to have BRTS only on ORR and IRR where the roads are 150 ft wide as the city roads are congested. For starters, BRTS is a dedicated bus corridor on the road for special buses. The project has been a success in cities like Bogota, capital of Colombia, and is cited as a model the worldover. As part of the proposal, the GHMC has proposed BRTS in seven routes in the city. Moosarambagh bridge to Chaderghat Bridge along Musi South Bank (3.5 km), Punjagutta to Erragadda (4.5 km), Mehdipatnam to Uppal (17 km), Moosarambagh Bridge to Chaderghat North Bank of Musi (3.5 km), Owaisi Hospital-Chandrayanagutta, Bandlaguda and Aramghar junction (9.5 km) and Bapughat to Chaderghat (12 kms). The estimated project cost is Rs 496 crore. The GHMC has sent the proposal to the Centre to get funds under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). The corporation has asked traffic experts of IIT Delhi and the Administrative Staff College of India to study a corridor - Uppal to Mehdipatnam - and submit a report on the viability. Under the BRTS model, a dedicated lane with 63 ft width should be left for BRTS buses. However, most of the city roads are 100 ft wide except some roads like SP Road where the width is 150 ft. If 63 ft are left for BRTS buses, hardly 40 ft is left for two wheelers and four wheelers including RTC buses, insufficient to take normal traffic. Sources said the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is proposing BRTS on some more roads on the IRR which will be finalised soon. It may be recalled that the city BRTS project was shelved after accidents were reported in BRTS corridors in New Delhi and Pune a few months ago. After that the government put off proposals in New Delhi except a pilot road.

Shameful BJP campaign

Using Terrorism to garner votes....how shameful ! The Mumbai tragedy should have not be used .The BJP needs to do some serious soul searching.Narendra Modi also has acted irresponsibly trying to give compensation to the man, who he mocked at a week ago.Not that I'm happy with the way any of our other parties have acted.The UPA Government has to seriously do something now.The citizens of India cannot pay with their lives time and again.Their performance so far has been dismal.Shivraj Patil has been the most awful home minister we have had.Amar Singh ....the less said about him the better.If the leaders represent the people, then in a democracy it seem's we the people are a bunch of idiots.We are responsible for the situation we are in.

At every step of his visit to Mumbai following the terror attacks, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was shown very clearly that he was not welcome. Perhaps the strongest rebuff came from the wife of slain ATS chief Hemant Karkare, who refused to meet him in Mumbai on Friday evening. Mr Modi was critical of ATS chief Hemant Karkare’s investigation of the Malegaon blasts. Earlier in the day, the Gujarat CM whipped up a mini-storm by visiting the terror attack sites even before Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. Mr Modi’s comments evoked a sharp response from the ruling Congress. Mr Modi not only criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, but also announced a Rs 1-crore relief for families of the deceased policemen.

Nations in unprecedented co-op on case

Unprecedented intelligence co-operation involving investigating agencies and spy outfits of India, the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel has gotten under way to crack the method and motive behind the Mumbai terrorist massacre, now widely blamed on Islamist radicals who appeared to have all four countries on their hit list when they arrived on the shores of India. Investigators, forensic analysts, counter-terrorism experts and spymasters from agencies of the four countries are converging on New Delhi and Mumbai to put their heads, resources and skills together to understand the evolving nature of the beast.

Gujarat’s airports to be revamped

In the coming months, most of Gujarat’s 17 airports are going to become a focal point of development, with various activities to be taken up here. Recently, the ports have seen expansion of runways, installation of new equipment and identifying of a new site for airport in the state, official sources said. If the work to upgrade facilities at Sardar Patel International Airport at Ahmedabad is on the verge of completion, the installation of very high frequency omni directional radio range (VRO) and instrument landing facility at Surat airport will expectedly help aircraft to land during night too, they said. Absence of this equipment makes it impossible for aircraft to fly in and out of Surat during the night, the sources said, adding that the lights on the runway are already in place. The sources informed that once clearance from the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) arrives, the upgraded facilities at Ahmedabad and Surat airports would be made operational. Meanwhile, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had found the runways at Rajkot and Porbander airports to be small for landing and take-off for aircraft with full load. The AAI had in a letter to the state government had suggested expansion of runways at Rajkot and Porbander airports. However, as there is no scope for expansion of runaways at Rajkot airport because of a burgeoning city and a railway track at its two ends, the work for an alternative airport has begun. Last month, a team comprising officials of AAI, state government and local bodies zeroed in on two villages, including Khandheri, as a probable site for a new airport.

Public Anger against Pakistan

The details revealed by the terrorist who was arrested on Thursday were also the trigger for external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee’s terse conversation with his counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi, during which he made no bones of India’s anger. There were pointers available in public to what transpired between the two foreign ministers. A call from Mukherjee froze the smile on Qureshi’s face, who had engaged in a gamesmanship of sorts by taking the call at a press conference with women journalists. Soon afterwards, the usually protocol-conscious MEA released the contents of the conversation in a move aimed at both conveying India’s sentiments and addressing the growing popular anger against terrorism in India. Analysts rated Mukherjee’s statement as tough. In Mumbai, the operations against the terrorists have been cheered by citizens shouting “Pakistan murdabad!’’. While there was unanimity that the PM needed to engage in plainspeak with Pakistan, his unorthodox move to invite the ISI chief raised many eyebrows within the government. The decision, taken at the highest levels, doesn’t address the concerns about how the Indian system will share intelligence or evidence with the ISI without jeopardizing its assets—moles—or helping the ISI blur the evidence provided. The misgivings about the move are strengthened by the failure of the joint anti-terror mechanism between the two countries thus far for these reasons. Pakistan readily agreed to India’s bizarre suggestion because it gives it a unique opportunity to showcase its “cooperation’’ to the rest of the world—on a terror attack that targeted US, British and Israeli nationals.India’s move came even as the government refused to accept help from Israel and only reluctantly did so from the US.

GDP growth rises to 7.6%

The construction industry and those in the services sector like trade, hotels, transport and communication pulled up GDP growth to 7.6% in the second quarter of this fiscal. Though the construction industry’s growth at 9.7% was lower than last year’s 11.8%, the trade, hotels, transport and communication group was the only segment among eight classified sectors that maintained a double-digit growth of 10.8%. In view of the global meltdown and poor performance of the manufacturing sector, the government considered the Q2 growth in GDP impressive and hoped that robust growth in the agriculture sector would further pull the overall GDP in the current year. Despite the global meltdown, the fact that the Indian economy grew by 7.8% in the first six months of this fiscal is a good sign, finance minister P Chidambaram said. The FM said the sluggish growth of manufacturing sector remained a matter of concern besides the poor performance of electricity, gas and water supply group. The manufacturing sector grew by 5.3% in the first half of 2008-09 as against the double-digit growth last year. The electricity, gas and water supply group registered a growth of 3.1% compared to 7.4% in the previous year. Chidambaram hoped that the agriculture and allied sector would rebound in the second half of this fiscal after a slowdown witnessed in the first half. Farm sector growth was at 2.9% as against 4.5% last year.M Govinda Rao, member of the PM’s economic panel, said the growth has been better than expected. He cautioned that the slowdown in manufacturing and services sector may impact the growth in the second half of the fiscal though the GDP would grow at 7%. Key indicators like aggregate bank deposits and bank credits have shown growth rates of 19.8% and 24.8% respectively in Q2 over the same period last year. Among the services sectors, railway passenger and freight services have shown growth rates of 12% and 9.9% respectively. In the communication sector, telephone connection—both WLL and cellular—registered a growth of 42.2%.