Photo courtesy of Wikipedia The government-owned Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust plans to increase its draft from the current 12 meters to about 14.5 m in the first phase of its port expansion. India expects a $60-billion investment in its ports by 2020 to ease infrastructure bottlenecks. This expenditure would be part of the planned $1-trillion revamp of India’s choked transport and power networks.“The focus will be on awarding projects under the public-private-partnership mode, with [a] chunk of investments coming from the private sector,” B.K. Chaturvedi, a member of the Planning Commission, told a local newspaper. Currently, 74 projects have been
Photo courtesy of RAHI Issues surrounding compensation to landowners are delaying work on regional airports and other infrastructure. Land acquisition issues appear to be a growing factor in the delay of millions of dollars of infrastructure and industrial projects in India. Officials are pushing new legislation to boost compensation to landowners, but concerns over cost impacts may keep the provisions bottled up in the country's parliament.A recent study by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation says the proportion of federal projects running behind schedule increased to over 53% in December 2010 from 34% in March 2007. Further, while environmental
Six years after South Korean steelmaker Pohang Iron and Steel Co. signed a memorandum of understanding with the Orissa government for India’s largest foreign direct-investment project, the $12 billion mega-venture remains a non-starter.The integrated steel project is mired in opposing political agendas, environmental conflicts and the country’s biggest issue: land acquisition by the government and ongoing protests by local residents who contend the land for the project was taken not for public use but for a private company.A memorandum of understanding on the 12-million-tons-per-annum integrated steel-plant-and-port project, signed in 2005, reportedly expired last year.Orissa steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty recently
Photo courtesy Bintan Resorts Work is now under way on Lagoi Bay, a resort encompassing over 1300 ha on Bintan Island. Photo courtesy Bintan Resorts The project faces a number of engineering challenges because it is being built on swamp land. Work is now under way on Lagoi Bay, a resort community encompassing over 1300 hectares on Bintan Island, one of Indonesia’s largest islands. Valued at approximately $812 million, the project is slated to be completed by 2014.Once a coconut plantation, the coastal development is less than an hour away by ferry from Singapore. The owners, Bintan Resorts, hope to
Construction is racing into the homestretch 35 kilometers outside of Delhi in preparation for India’s first Formula One grand prix, on Oct. 30. India’s first Formula One race track, known as the Buddh International Circuit, is expected to be homologated by August. JPSI German architect and racetrack designer Hermann Tilke designed the $400-million Buddh International Circuit. JPSI The course track features long, fast straightaways, complex slower sections with open, flowing corners and unusual gradients. Homologation is the approval process a race track must go through to be part of a league or series. The regulations and rules that must be
India's Gujarat state in western India may have only 5% of the country's population, but it has big ambitions for growth, aiming to become a leading center of industry, finance and economic activity over the next decade. Gujarat, which envisions billions in building and infrastructure projects under way by 2020, moved to propel the effort recently by becoming the first state in India to enact a legal framework for public-private partnerships. The moves prompted a Washington Post columnist's recent reference to Gujarat as the “China of India,” but the state's mammoth undertaking is not without challenge and setbacks. Gujarat has
India is developing an ambitious plan to boost the country’s fledgling airport infrastructure. Economic planners estimate the voracious appetite for commercial air travel will require an investment of about $30 billion by 2020. Now at 100 million passengers per year, traffic is expected to reach 180 million by 2015 and 300 million by 2020, according to Ministry of Civil Aviation estimates. More than 20 proposals are currently under consideration for greenfield airports, and some $3 billion is expected to be spent on the sector in the next three years. The to-do list includes the newly approved Mumbai Airport, expected to
Asia’s first large tidal energy farm will be deployed off the Indian state of Gujarat next year, under an agreement signed in January between state-owned Gujarat Power Corp. Ltd. and marine energy developer Atlantis Resources Corp., based in the U.K. and Singapore. Rendering Courtesy Of Atlantis Resources Marine energy developer Atlantis Resources will use its AK1000 turbine design in the Gulf of Kutch, off the coast of Gujarat state in India. Rendering Courtesy Of Atlantis Resources The offshore project, a joint venture of Atlantis and a local power utility, will involve installation of 50 bottom-mounted turbines, each generating 1 MW
India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Sources (MNRE) is working on a master plan for establishing 60 “solar cities.” The MNRE says the plan will help reduce fossil fuel use by 10% by 2018. The objective of the program is to promote renewable energy in urban areas and enable local governments to use public-private partnerships to meet sustainable energy challenges at the municipal level, explains Arun Tripathi, MNRE director. “This is the first time a plan is being structured in a consolidated manner,” Tripathi says. Currently, 45 cities have been given the green light, and a consultant will be
India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has reshuffled his Cabinet, and among the changes announced on Jan. 19 was the appointment of C.P. Joshi to be Minister for Road Transport and Highways. Joshi, who led the Rural Development Ministry, replaces Kamal Nath, who shifts to become head of the Urban Development Ministry. As Joshi begins his new job, he aims to make ministry operations transparent and push for new technology to monitor road projects in real time. The industry continues to expect that highway projects will be accelerated, although Joshi has declined to provide specific goals. In May 2009, then-minister Nath