Infrastructure

News Review
th
th
20 -26 May 2016

Group 2

Aditya Gokhale
Devda0a Patankar
Nikhilesh Maheswari
Rishabh Dhall
Shivanshu Makkar
Varnith Kopparam

Railways

Safety
French rm Thales to provide latest
safety technology to Indian Railways

With the rolling out of Indian Railways'
"zero-accident mission", several global
players, including French rm Thales, have
geared up to be part of the plan to provide
latest technology for strengthening the
safety of India's rail network.

Indian Railways intends to implement Train

ProtecNon Warning System (TPWS) on a total
of approximately 7,900 km of main lines
Railways aim to achieve zero level accident
with the implementaNon of modern
signalling system in the network.

Railways seeks Rs 1.19 lakh

crore from Finance Ministry
for safety in operaGons

Railways has sought more than
Rs 1 lakh crore from the Finance
Ministry to strengthen the track
and upgradaNon of the signalling
system to ensure safe train
operaNon.

Since railways has decided to

increase the average speed of
trains, it is important that rail
track and rail bridges are also
strengthened alongwith signalling
upgradaNon.

New IniNaNves
Wi-Fi hotspots on the cards at 4,000 railway
staGons

RailTel, the communicaNons arm of Indian Railways, and the

telecom department are mulling ways to deploy Wi-Fi
hotspots at some 4,000 semi-urban and rural railway staNons
at an esNmated cost of around Rs 400 crore.
The proposed iniNaNve is aimed to give a big boost to Prime
Minister Narendra Modi's ambiNous 'Digital India'
programme

Railways launch RO-RO service to aLract more
loadings

Railways launched a new service 'Ro-Ro' to carry loaded

trucks on goods train in a bid to a0ract more loadings and
reduce carbon emission.
Roll-on Roll-o (RO-RO) service was launched across the
Digha rail bridge between Bihta and Turki staNons in Bihar.

New IniNaNves(ConNnued)
First bullet train to run in India by 2023-

The bullet train is expected to cover 508 km

between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in about two hours,
running at a maximum speed of 350 kmph and operaNng
speed of 320 kmph.
EsNmated to cost about Rs 97,636 crore, 81 per cent of the
funding for the project will come by way of the loan from
Japan.

Cabinet nod for rail infra projects worth Rs 10,736

crore
Railway projects worth Rs 10,736 crore were cleared by the
government for improving infrastructure in various states
The projects, including three for doubling of exisNng rail
lines and two for laying a third rail line on busy routes, were
cleared by the Cabinet Commi0ee on Economic Aairs
(CCEA)

Roads


India, Thailand, Myanmar to be connected by road

India, Thailand and Myanmar are working

on a 1,400-kilometre long highway that will
link India with Southeast Asia by land for
the rst Nme in decades
NegoNaNons are currently underway to
conclude a tri- naNon motor vehicle
agreement for the use of the 1,400-km
road

When the repair work will be completed
in 18 months, the highway could be
opened to trac from all three countries

NHAI to repay loan to banks even in stuck projects

NHAI has decided to pay back major share of the loan to banks
aeer carrying out independent assessment of the work done

Such projects will then be, under public-private partnership (PPP),

taken over by the authority for their compleNon.


In the exisNng MCA, lenders get no compensaNon in case a
project is terminated during construcNon period.

NiNn Gadkari's home state Maharashtra to get most road projects

Ocials have been allowed to sancNon projects with expenses up

to Rs 20,000 crore for Maharashtra during this year.


The total approved sancNon ceiling for building highways for
2016-17 for all states is pegged at Rs 42,208 crore.


Maharashtra has got a good share since many stretches in the
state have been declared as new naNonal highways in the past
two years," said a ministry ocial

Airports

Government to soon announce measures to curb high

airfares: Minister

Government is nally going to announce a mechanism soon to
curb high airfares and unveil a new civil aviaNon policy to address
all major issues aecNng the sector.
We are in the process of adopNng certain measures to cap Ncket
price. But we are trying to do it by consensus and not by regulaNon.

Minister of State for Civil AviaNon Mahesh Sharma said
government's priority is to improve infrastructure and it is invesNng
around Rs 15,000 crore in 2016-17 in upgrading of the exisNng
airports and segng up new ones.

DomesNc passenger trac to cross 100 million by

year-end: DGCA
India has outstripped passenger trac
growth in this sector across major global
economies including the US and China
last year.

The number of passengers own by the
Indian airlines stood at 81.09 million in
the January-December period last year, a jump of 20.34 per cent
from 67.38 million they had own in 2014
India is set to become the third largest aviaNon market in the world
by 2020.


New Launches

VRL LogisGcs chairman Vijay Sankeshwar plans to start air carrier
from Bengaluru - Sankeshwar and his son Anand Sankeshwar will
invest about Rs 1,300 crore in the airline venture over the next
three years, pugng in Rs 300 crore in equity and raising debt for
the balance amount.

TirupaG Airport to begin internaGonal operaGons by June end -
InternaNonal operaNons from TirupaN Airport will begin by June
end, with iniNal ights to the US and the middle-east (via New
Delhi), a senior Andhra Pradesh government ocial said .
The exisNng airport at Rajamahendravaram was being expanded to
enable operaNon of larger aircrae like the Airbus A-319 and A-320,
Jain added.

Others

Ports
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone's
raGng lowered from stable to negaGve by
Moody's -

The change in raNngs outlook reects the
company's lower volume growth, mainly
due to lower coal volumes, and a rise in
capital expenditure and nancial leverage,
when compared to previous expectaNons.
The tepid volume growth in FY16 was
accompanied by higher debt due to
increase in capex and loans and advances

LogisNcs
LogisGcs companies rally on GST passage hopes

LogisNcs companies have rallied in a weak market late last week as
the BJP's win in Assam and gains in vote share in other states have
bolstered hopes of the passage of the much-awaited Goods and
Services Tax bill in the monsoon session of Parliament.

Patel Integrated LogisNcsBSE 4.40 % and Allcargo LogisNcsBSE 1.69
% gained around 8% each. GaN gained the most, rising nearly 11%.
Snowman LogisNcs and VRL LogisNcs gained 1.4% and 2.1%
respecNvely.

Smart CiNes
Lucknow tops list of 13 new smart ciGes

The government announced the names of 13 more ciNes to be
developed as smart ciNes, taking the total count to 33.

The 13 ciNes have proposed total investment of Rs 30,229 crore.
The 20 ciNes on the original list had proposed Rs 50,802 crore.

The government in January set the ball rolling on its agship 100
smart ciNes plan by announcing the rst list of 20.

Thank You