Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal was on Saturday given additional charge of the law ministry while Road and Transport Minister C P Joshi was entrusted with the charge of the railways ministry, following the resignation of Ashwani Kumar and Pawan Bansal on Friday.
From the time he first rose to prominence during the movement against the then UPA government, Arvind Kejriwal has regularly grabbed headlines for his surprise moves and decisions. Here are 10 such instances.
'We completed Rs 17 trillion worth of projects in the first term and currently Rs 9 trillion worth of contracts are under construction.'
While some states have proposed to dilute the hefty penalty provisions in the Act, there are those like West Bengal which have refused to implement right away.
The minister said that the priority for him will be "rolling out all stuck highway projects that include many of the IL&FS projects within 100 days".
The driver of the ill-fated Hyderabad-bound Volvo bus was overstressed and there were fire crackers inside the vehicle, according to findings of an investigation that probed two recent road mishaps in which 52 persons were killed.
The Centre on Sunday moved the Delhi High Court seeking recall of its order directing supply of entire allocated oxygen of 490 metric tonnes (MT) to the national capital and warning of contempt action for failure to do so.
Kamal Nath is in New York attending several meetings, including McGraw-Hill Construction, which is one of the largest construction industry events.
As part of efforts to curb pollution, the Centre is in the final stage of completing the Rs 10 crore pilot project under which 10 refurbished electric buses will be handed over to select State Transport Corporations by March 2016.
Road Transport Minister Kamal Nath said on Monday he was forewarned that the Plan panel would not allow him to achieve a 20 km-a-day road-building target.
Road ministry mulls a fee of Rs 15 for such a cover.
The I&M programme will entail a nationwide comprehensive programme to test and certify, at frequent intervals, a vehicle's 'road worthiness'. The programme gains importance as more than 100,000 people die each year from road accidents in the country, roughly 10 per cent of the world total.
The project, to be executed by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, would involve double-laning of single-lane highways in eight states in the next three years.
Candidates will be short-listed for interview on the basis of the information provided by them in their online application, the statement said.
Finance Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday asked various ministries to try to spend more than their capital expenditure targets as well as explore public private partnerships for viable projects. During a meeting with senior government officials to discuss the infrastructure roadmap, she also urged the ministries and their CPSEs to ensure clearance of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) dues at the earliest. This was the fifth review meeting by the finance minister with ministries and departments on the infrastructure roadmap.
The Centre has accorded top priority for cost-effective, pollution-free transportation modes, such as waterways, which reduce logistic costs and increase road safety. Union minister of roads, highways, ports and shipping Nitin Gadkari speaks to Sanjay Jog about the government's strategy.
The Centre will make it mandatory for carmakers to provide a minimum of six airbags in motor vehicles that can carry up to 8 passengers for enhanced safety of occupants, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Friday. In a series of tweets, the Road Transport and Highways Minister said his ministry had already mandated the implementation of fitment of the driver airbag with effect from July 1, 2019 and front co-passenger airbag with effect from January 1, 2022. "In order to enhance the safety of the occupants in motor vehicles carrying upto 8 passengers, I have now approved a Draft GSR Notification to make a minimum of 6 Airbags compulsory," Gadkari said.
The Ministry of Surface Transport and Highways will set up a road safety fund with an initial corpus of Rs 120 crore (Rs 1.20 billion).
Transport minister says they are cheaper mode of transport than road and rail; so far only 5 river stretches have been declared waterways
As a new initiative for promoting highway development, the mode of engineering procurement and construction contracts is being brought in, it said.
Government tenders could soon go to bidders who promise to train highest number of youth.
'I see a virtually zero impact on the sales of new vehicles with this move,' said an expert
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday said he has asked US-based Tesla several times to manufacture its iconic electric vehicles in India, while assuring that all support will be provided by the government to the company. Addressing 'India Today Conclave 2021', Gadkari further said electric cars manufactured by Tata Motors are not less good than electric cars manufactured by Tesla. "I have told Tesla that don't sell electric cars in India which your company has manufactured in China.
The company said the new model would be available for sale in sugarcane-producing Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, to begin with.
India's climate change goals are turning combustible. On the one hand, a protracted dispute between the government and manufacturers over subsidies threatens to slow the pace of electric vehicle (EV) sales. On the other hand, repeated assertions by different arms of the government over banning sales of new fossil fuel-fired vehicles have queered the pitch for energy investments. Before we address the issue of the recommended diesel vehicle ban in the recent report on energy transition, issued months before the next round of global climate talks begin in Dubai in November, let's look at what's at stake.
The use of such robots can not only save lives but can also help road construction companies cut down on labour costs.
The owner can pay registration fee for two years and the other amount in instalments in later years, in multiples of two.
Despite the hope that lessons will be learnt, the next accident invariably shows that nothing has been learnt -- or if learnt, they have been ignored, observes Prosenjit Datta.
With increasing number of road accidents involving vehicles driven by under-age boys, Union Minister Renuka Chowdhary on Tuesday said that parents of such children should face the music."The children are not at fault. The parents should be responsible enough not to allow an under-age child to drive. This is the reason they are not allowed to vote and drink. Father's license should be taken back and then only there will be a check (on such incidents)," she added.
The Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry proposes to build a huge network of expressways by 2022, also the final year of the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan.The ministry plans to build expressways in 3 phases -- by 2012, 2017 and 2022 -- and, accordingly, it has prepared a draft report for a network of the proposed 17,661-km of stretches.The report has suggested the government set up the proposed expressways on both an annuity and a public-private partnership (PPP) basis.
Across the country, the number of patients in ICU beds is 4,88,861 while 1,70,841 patients were on ventilators and 9,02,291 patients were on oxygen support.
Changes in the draft essentially mean that the year of the Motor Vehicles Bill 2016 will change to 2019 besides other such technical amendments. But the contents of the bill remain the same.
The use of beacon light, which is seen as a status symbol, is till now restricted to a select category of people from politics, judiciary, executive and legislature.
'Heavy rains are not the primary reason for landslides in Wayanad.' 'There are all sorts of (human) intervention going on in that area.'
To threaten China and Pakistan, and then to sharply cut back on military funding, bespeaks a remarkable trust in Beijing and Islamabad that is not borne out by anything they say or do, notes Ajai Shukla.
Contentious issues like land acquisition and sharing of toll seem to have put the approval of the new Model Concession Agreement for highway projects on hold.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said re-developed railway stations would become iconic structures and centres of economic activity.
In what could mean a big investment opportunity for the construction industry in the years to come, the road transport ministry plans to more than double private participation in highway construction during the 12th Five Year Plan starting April 2012.
District authorities on Wednesday reported nine more death cases in the wake of the devastation caused by cyclone Hudhud even as the worst-hit Visakhapatnam city was limping back to normalcy with adequate supplies of essential commodities.
