Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday pitched for formulating a policy for using the Reserve Bank of India's rising foreign exchange reserves for funding road projects, saying the country needs low cost finance for such infrastructure projects. Addressing a virtual event organised by industry body CII, Gadkari further said that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) should also have a financial arm like the power ministry's Power Finance Corporation (PFC). "We have a surplus of dollar reserves in the country. I have decided to talk with the RBI Governor, about how we can formulate a policy by which we can use this foreign exchange reserves for development of infrastructure in the country," he said.
The monthly Rs 2500 payment for poor women is expected to cost Rs 11,000 crore while the pension scheme of Rs 2000 for every senior citizen will cost around Rs 4100 crore. The Yamuna clean up will cost over Rs 10,000 crore while a similar amount is required to upgrade Delhi's hospitals. Ultimately, the new BJP government will have no choice but to ask the centre for financial support, notes Rashme Sehgal.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com tracks Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi's project-launching spree with just about three months to go for the assembly election in India's most populous state.
The civil aviation ministry and Maharashtra have been planning an international airport near Pune for almost 10 years. The airport site would see construction from year 2011 onwards, if the land acquisition happens within a year.
Roads account for the second largest amount of bad loans.
According to an official statement, Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said the 19 other places in the country include Phalodi-Jaisalmer road and Barmer-Jaisalmer road in Rajasthan, Kharagpur-Balasore road in West Bengal, Hashimara-Guwahati road in Assam, Bhuj-Naliya road in Gujarat, Leh/Nyoma area in Assam and on the Jorhat-Baraghat road, among others.
Once the scheme is implemented 70-80 per cent of the freight would move along national highways as against the current 40 per cent, says Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.
China plans to build a new highway along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India as part of Beijing's efforts to strengthen its strategic position and project its power, a media report said on Wednesday.
'It is typical of China's strategic deception of making virtue out of necessity,' observes Rup Narayan Das.
"Based on this consensus, the process of disengagement is almost complete. Our efforts will be to take the matter beyond disengagement; but for that, we will have to wait a little longer," he added.
In recent years, the twin demands of both religion and defence have been added to the development argument to sweep aside environmental and terrain considerations while undertaking infrastructure development in the Himalayan zone, points out former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
The National Highways Authority of India on Wednesday said it needs to borrow up to Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) per year for the next 15 years to implement Rs 9 lakh crore (Rs 9 trillion) worth of road projects in the PPP mode till 2031-32.
Modi was born on September 17, 1950 in a small town in Gujarat.
20 new industrial clusters will be developed in 2014-15.
"My aim is to make Maharashtra the world's big financial powerhouse and to make Mumbai a global fintech capital," he said.
Modi said that unlike other parties that believe in keeping people weak so that their dependence on them never ends and their "crown" remains intact, the BJP believes in empowering them and making them independent.
The assailants believed to be Pakistani terrorists, meticulously studied the site layout before executing their plan.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced hiking the capital expenditure by 33 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore for infrastructure development for 2023-24 and will be at 3.3 per cent of the GDP. Presenting the Budget for 2023-24, she said the newly established infrastructure finance secretariat will assist in attracting more private investment. "Capital investment outlay is being increased steeply for the third year in a row by 33 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore, which would be 3.3 per cent of GDP.
Delays in the National Highway Development Programme are likely to cost the government dear with the project costs escalating by a staggering Rs 50,500 crore (Rs 505 billion).
'People should realise that what we are fighting for today is actually for tomorrow, for future generations.'
The project, anchored by National Highways Authority of India in partnership with National Payments Corporation of India, is gaining momentum, with big banks such as ICICI and non-bank entities like Paytm have also entered the arena.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused Delhi's Aam Aadmi Party government of wasting a decade fighting with the Centre and urged its people to give the Bharatiya Janata Party an opportunity to turn the national capital into a city of the future.
The prime minister, who is on a two-day visit to the state, inaugurated, laid the foundation stone of and dedicated to the nation, railway and metro projects in the state worth Rs 4,500 crore.
Locals hold gradual land subsidence responsible for the fissures and attribute it to the widening of the national highway, violation of norms in construction works related to mandi parishad, erosion caused by the Pindar river and unsystematic flushing out of rainwater.
Accelerated development of highways will be taken up with 2,500 km access controlled highways and 9,000 km of economic corridor. In addition, there will be 2,000 km each of strategic highway projects and port connectivity projects, she said.
It was the summer of 2006 (May 18). Writers' Building, then the state secretariat, was buzzing with journalists. The event marked the start of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's second term as chief minister. And in style, it got off with West Bengal bagging the small car plant, Nano.
After the Ladakh fiasco where Xi Jinping did not expect the Indian Army to resist his land-grabbing tactics, he has to save face before his colleagues in the Communist party.' To bring the threat of a mega-dam to the northern Indian border is a clever move, observes Claude Arpi.
This restoration, according to the officials, is seen as a crucial step towards initiating a healing process, reinstating constitutional rights and safeguarding the unique identity of the region's residents.
A trust deficit had been building between developers and their customers, with massive incidence of project delays and deviations. Compliance with Rera is an opportunity to revive buyers' confidence.
Few big ticket road projects will be fast-tracked soon.
Delhi's air quality plummeted to alarming levels on Tuesday after 24 days, with many areas witnessing a significant spike in pollution despite the strictest measures, including a ban on construction activities and the entry of trucks into the city, coming into force.
'Curiously, Pinarayi's approach, stressing the imperatives of development, is robustly backed by Nitin Gadkari.'
'I stand next only to Gadkari, one of the few outstanding ministers in the Modi government, in applauding Pinarayi's political courage and vision,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Gomti Riverfront Development project, the Agra-Lucknow Expressway, the Jai Prakash Narayan International Centre and the efforts towards the beautification of Old Lucknow are some of Akhilesh Yadav's initiatives that are the subject of investigation.
'When so many young Baloch men and women are willingly volunteering as fighters and even suicide bombers.'
Road developers hoping for early relief from the government will have to wait longer.
Pakistan's deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, who is in China on a four-day visit, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi co-chaired the fifth round of the foreign minister-level China-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue.
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