The recent accident at the Delhi Metro site in South Delhi that claimed six lives was caused by 'serious deficiency' in design and inadequate concrete strength, Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
Unwilling to take chances after two mishaps in consecutive days, Delhi Metro authorities on Monday ordered a "complete re-check" of structures built in the second phase of the rail project by independent structural experts from the safety and quality angle. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation also announced a probe into Monday's mishap during clearance of the debris that remained after an under-construction bridge collapsed in Jamrudpur in South Delhi.
A metallic structure supporting main concrete pillars at Mumbai's under-construction Metro line, in the north-western suburb of Sakinaka, collapsed on Monday night. No one was injured in the incident, which took place at 11.30 pm on Monday night, when work was going on at the construction site of the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar metro rail. The incident comes two days after six people were killed when an under-construction pillar collapsed at a Delhi Metro site.
The Delhi Metro chief E Sreedharan on Monday withdrew his resignation from the post, a day after he put in his papers owning moral responsibility for an accident at a construction site in which six people were killed.
The process will be initiated on July 16 and completed by November 15, according to state municipal administration minister Aanam Ramanarayana Reddy. Last week, the state government cancelled the contract awarded to Maytas Infra-led consortium after it failed to tie up funds despite a three-month extension. Maytas Infra is promoted by kin of disgraced Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju.
Maytas Infrastructure, majority-owned by the family of scam-hit IT firm Satyam's disgraced founder B Ramalinga Raju, is believed to have proposed bringing in Reliance Infra as a partner in the prestigious Rs 12,200-crore (Rs 122 billion) metro rail project in Hyderabad.
The company had approached banks with a CDR request for about Rs 1,700 crore. However, according to company sources, the banks felt that Maytas must shed the flab, which includes dilution of stake in the Bangalore elevated tollway to raise funds before the CDR is granted. It has also been reportedly told that it should disengage from various projects which it cannot take forward.
Andhra Pradesh's Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister Anam Ramnarayana Reddy said a meeting would be held shortly and various milestones achieved in the project ever since it was awarded to Maytas Infra would be reviewed. The concession agreement and its clauses would be reviewed at the meeting, said a senior official, adding the government was serious about the clauses and there was no question of taking a soft stance.
The ambitious project of the urban development ministry, pegged at Rs 4,676 crore, was originally scheduled to be completed in 2015. It is to be executed through a joint venture company of the central and state government. Equity participation of the state and central government will be on a 50:50 basis. But soon after taking charge of the railway ministry, Banerjee had a talk with Union Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy about her apprehensions.
The end of the train which hit the wall suffered damage and a portion of the wall collapsed, suggesting that the collision was quite intense.
The government designated the court of First Additional District and Sessions Judge in Mahabubnagar district as special court for speedy trial of the case.
As a fallout of the financial irregularities in Satyam Computer Services, a section of the United Progressive Alliance government is in favour of cancelling the award of the Hyderabad Metro Rail project. The project was won by the Nava Bharat-led consortium, in which Maytas Infra, a listed firm related to Satyam's promoters, is one of the partners.
It is clear that the final phase of Sreedharan's career may have to pay a lot more attention to undoing the damage caused by the accident that took place on his 77th birthday.
"The Board of the company has approved a proposal to further unlock overall shareholder value by transferring its infrastructure projects to a separate 100 per cent subsidiary, subject to compliance with applicable laws," REL informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The company failed to achieve financial closure for the Rs 12,100-crore (Rs 121 billion) metro project in March and had sought extension of the deadline by another six months. The decision on it is pending with the state government. Doubts were also expressed about its capabilities to execute the Rs 1,650-crore (Rs 16.5 billion) Machilipatnam project.
Special ticketing units at Kashmere Gate, Chandni Chowk.
Work on the Hyderabad metro rail will begin by May next year and some sections will be opened for traffic by March 2014. The entire project will be completed by end of 2014.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is set to install automatic ticket vending machines at select metro stations in the national capital. Commuters will be able to get their metro tokens from the vending machines installed at Barakambha Road, Central Secretariat and Vishwa Vidayalaya metro stations from the end of April. The DMRC has procured 16 such machines to be installed at various metro stations in the capital.
Within hours of Company Law Board orders, the government on Thursday appointed its nominees on the boards of Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties, the companies promoted by the kin of disgraced founder of the Satyam Computer Services B Ramalinga Raju.
Cracks have been noticed on two piers with cantilevers on the newly constructed Yamuna Bank- Noida Metro line during an inspection of all Metro structures, a move taken up after the July 12 mishap which claimed six lives.
Justice Rewa Khetrapal directed the company to file its response by August 20 when the matter will be taken up for further hearing.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has indicted the way the DMRC is run and points to the novel 50:50 management structure that neither of the governments is in charge, so the company is pretty much run by the management, namely Sreedharan.
In what could bring some respite to Maytas Infra, which is caught in a controversy after Satyam aborted its bid to acquire it, the Andhra Pradesh government refused to see the Satyam issue as a factor that would impact the Rs 12,000-crore (Rs 120 billion) Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) project, which is being executed by a Maytas-led consortium.
The 11.4-km Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar corridor is set to be operational by 2010-end. Mumbai Metro One, the special purpose vehicle formed to undertake construction, has selected CSR Nanjing Puzhen Rolling Stock Company -- a 100-year-old subsidiary of the government-owned China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation.
The planned metro rail corridor from Colaba in south Mumbai to the north western suburb of Bandra will be considered after the Indian Railways states its plan for the elevated rail corridor from Churchgate to Virar, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority Metropolitan commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad said. MMRDA will await the feasibility study being carried out by the Railways regarding the elevated corridor before deciding the next step for the metro line, he said.
Accompanied by BJP national general secretary and party in-charge of poll-bound Tamil Nadu, C T Ravi, and Murugan, with his security detail in tow, the home minister warmly waved at the overjoyed supporters who had thronged the airport since the morning.
On Tuesday, the state-run Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, the planning body, indicated that it expected to award the contract before December, which would pave the way to kick start construction in the same month.
Delhi Metro will add 131 more trains, some of them with six coaches, to its fleet to cater to the additional traffic caused due to the increasing number of passengers.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation on Wednesday hiked its minimum fare from Rs 6 to Rs 8, while the maximum will be Rs 30 instead of Rs 22.
The Jamia Millia Islamia on Saturday declared vacation till January 5 and cancelled all exams in view of the tense situation in the university due to students' protest against the amended citizenship act.
MMOPL has already taken a decision to extend the fare slab of Rs 10 to Rs 40.
The deal includes Reliance Infrastructure's integrated business of Generation, Transmission and Retail Electricity Distribution
In the last one year, it has brought down its operating ratio to 0.52 from 0.64. The ratio measures that part of the income which goes to meet the operational expenditure of a railway. To put it in perspective, the operating ratio of the rejuvenated Indian Railways stood at 0.78 during 2007-08.
'Even though we are very religious and God fearing, we do not subscribe to the kind of Hindutva they practise, a very hierarchical, Brahmanical, Hindutva.'
Upset over removal of 'UP Rising' posters at Pravasi Bhartiya Divas in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh government has planned to organise a Diaspora conclave of its own for the first time next month to woo investors and associate NRIs in development of the state.
In the third accident involving Delhi Metro in the last 10 days, a labourer was killed after he was hit by a steel beam being lifted by a crane at its site in west Delhi on Wednesday, even as Delhi Metro Rail Corporation chief E Sreedharan put the blame on the contractor for the fatal mishap. The incident took place at around 5:45 am at Ashok Park work site in Punjabi Bagh, when the labourer was hit by the beam which was being lifted by the crane.
Bharat Earth Movers is set to witness a re-rating driven by the huge potential in the metro rail projects planned across the country.
PM to inaugurate Metro's longest line on Dec 30
In the first phase, 1,600 CISF personnel will be deployed to cover the 59 stations of mass transit system, stretching over 62 kms, as against the present system of 700-odd men guarding the network round the clock.
Stating there was an urgent need for investment in world-class infrastructure in urban areas, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday this was essential for cities to become 'more liveable and people-friendly'.