India Developing, but still a long way to go

[mirage2K]

Soon, vestibule AC buses for metros

NEW DELHI: Metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and other major urban areas which have dedicated corridors for buses will soon see the debut of articulated buses ( double buses). The Union urban development ministry has proposed to introduce these buses to attract passengers to use public transport.

An articulated bus is usually of single-deck design and comprises two rigid sections linked by a pivoting joint. Each of these buses can carry nearly 150 passengers. These buses are popular in other parts of the world. "We have proposed to introduce these buses on an experiment basis and these will be a part of our scheme to provide buses to cities and small towns in the second phase of JNNURM," a senior UD ministry official said. These will be AC buses.

Sources said there was also a proposal to introduce hybrid buses (battery operated) in some cities to promote green technology in public transport. These buses can cover about 200 km after the batteries are charged fully. "We are looking at providing different types of buses keeping in mind the requirement of cities and towns. We have proposed midi, mini and normal buses. Since articulated buses need more road space and better road geometry for maneuvering, city authorities will have to take a call on which routes these vehicles will run," an official said.

These are part of a comprehensive proposal to provide 10,000 buses under JNNURM-II to cities and small towns, particularly in hilly states. The ministry is seeking approval of the expenditure finance committee (EFC). Finance minister P Chidambaram had announced providing these buses to states during his budget speech. Sources said the UD ministry has already asked states to send their detailed demand for buses and it aims to finish the sanction process by September.

Meanwhile, learning from the experiences of hundreds of low floor AC buses breaking down in Delhi, the UD ministry has directed manufacturers to improve their future fleets. "The manufacturers have assured us that they will come out with good products. They told us that since it was a first-time experience for them to supply low floor AC buses in Delhi, there were some glitches. We have also asked the manufacturers to train four drivers per bus that they sell to government so that we have enough trained drivers," a ministry official said.

Soon, vestibule AC buses for metros - The Times of India

 

[Azazel]

Soon, vestibule AC buses for metros

NEW DELHI: Metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and other major urban areas which have dedicated corridors for buses will soon see the debut of articulated buses ( double buses). The Union urban development ministry has proposed to introduce these buses to attract passengers to use public transport.

An articulated bus is usually of single-deck design and comprises two rigid sections linked by a pivoting joint. Each of these buses can carry nearly 150 passengers. These buses are popular in other parts of the world. "We have proposed to introduce these buses on an experiment basis and these will be a part of our scheme to provide buses to cities and small towns in the second phase of JNNURM," a senior UD ministry official said. These will be AC buses.

Sources said there was also a proposal to introduce hybrid buses (battery operated) in some cities to promote green technology in public transport. These buses can cover about 200 km after the batteries are charged fully. "We are looking at providing different types of buses keeping in mind the requirement of cities and towns. We have proposed midi, mini and normal buses. Since articulated buses need more road space and better road geometry for maneuvering, city authorities will have to take a call on which routes these vehicles will run," an official said.

These are part of a comprehensive proposal to provide 10,000 buses under JNNURM-II to cities and small towns, particularly in hilly states. The ministry is seeking approval of the expenditure finance committee (EFC). Finance minister P Chidambaram had announced providing these buses to states during his budget speech. Sources said the UD ministry has already asked states to send their detailed demand for buses and it aims to finish the sanction process by September.

Meanwhile, learning from the experiences of hundreds of low floor AC buses breaking down in Delhi, the UD ministry has directed manufacturers to improve their future fleets. "The manufacturers have assured us that they will come out with good products. They told us that since it was a first-time experience for them to supply low floor AC buses in Delhi, there were some glitches. We have also asked the manufacturers to train four drivers per bus that they sell to government so that we have enough trained drivers," a ministry official said.

Soon, vestibule AC buses for metros - The Times of India

I hate those damn things..It will become a big menace in our over crowded roads.

 

[CorporateAffairs]

India is a clever, powerful, robust nation, sadly being led by eunuchs

 

[patentneer]

The OECD says India is probably world's 3'rd largest economy now, behind US, China.

Re: vestibule buses, it's India - does one have a choice? Personally, I prefer double-deckers.
If Mumbai sets the mark for the rest of India, in 10 yrs. India will have the best public transport infra. in the world.

From the last mile 3-wheeler auto, to the high speed, high capacity BIG new Mumbai locals. Wow!
Word is 12, 15 coach Mumbai locals are coming. Not to forget the slick metro and se*y monorail x-links .

Ooops, 15 coach locals done:

Indian Metro's Rakes
---------------------

 

[cloud_9]

NorthEye a.k.a Northi

SupaNova

 

[Brahmos_2]

Now, take a trip on a sea plane in Kerala!

Now, take a trip on a sea plane in Kerala! - Now, take a trip on a sea plane in Kerala! | The Economic Times

 

[patentneer]

Now, take a trip on a sea plane in Kerala!

Now, take a trip on a sea plane in Kerala! - Now, take a trip on a sea plane in Kerala! | The Economic Times

^^^

Mahindra, Tata and Reliance jumped into aerospace in recent yrs., same size planes.

Mahindra took over Gippsland and another Oz. aero Co.'s. Tata took major share in Piaggio Aero.
Reliance took an US Co. HAL is there and some other local types.

Reminds me of how other industries were built up layer-by-layer and now biggest in the world.

Agri., aka small size pumps, 2 wheelers, 3 wheelers, small tractors, motorcycles, vans, trucks, buses, jeeps and finally cars.

Each of the above industries now have Indian origin Global mega players. Both OEMs and supplier side.

Aerospace same-same, they'll use the same Indian rope trick of leveraging at-home demand to scale up to Global levels and enter the market w/o ruffling too many feathers.

Big, real big & !

 

[Abingdonboy]

Now, take a trip on a sea plane in Kerala!

Now, take a trip on a sea plane in Kerala! - Now, take a trip on a sea plane in Kerala! | The Economic Times

I know this article says this is the "first in the country" but AFAIK there is a similar service operating down in A&N islands.

 

[Abingdonboy]

All new structures including high rises are mandated by law to have Fire Fighting and Prevention equipment, and this is strictly enforced by the BMC. For facade cleaning and maintenance, all new high rises have window cleaning systems and movable mechanical maintenance platforms installed in them. The Bombay Fire Brigade needs to expand big time, though.

VERY good to know- music to my ears!!

Wrt Mumbai Fire brigade- yes I agree. For a city the scale of Mumbai the size of the Mumbai fire brigade at present is just not adequate- no two ways about it and this WILL cost lives and many millions in damage. And not just expansion but modernisation. I know they have fancy Merc tankers, MAN specialist/rescue vehicles and Volvo ladder trucks but their bread and butter- the general purpose tenders are just a joke (as they are across India as a whole). Some rickety, old and under powered TATA or AL more often than not:

These are, sadly, the backbone of any fire service and they just aren't fit for purpose in the 21st century, for a country like India and especially for the finacial heart of India- one of the globes largest and fastest growing economies.

It is frankly embarrassing but worse than that it is compromising on the safety of Mumbaikers/Indians. I dare say these general purpose tenders don't carry 1/5th of the specialist rescue equipment as comparable tenders in developed countries.

Race Course Faces Its Fate

Race Course Faces Its Fate - India Real Time - WSJ

The fate of one of India’s oldest racing tracks—the Mahalaxmi Race Course in Mumbai—hangs in the balance as officials mull what to do with it once its lease expires.

The 99-year-long lease on the land on which the racecourse is built, runs out on May 31, and Mumbai’s mayor is pushing to convert the space into a public leafy park in the style of Hyde Park in London or Central Park in New York.

The race course, built in 1883 on 225 acres of land in the heart of Mumbai, is managed by Royal Western India Turf Club Ltd., which holds the lease.

The land is partly owned by Mumbai’s civic authority, the Birhanmumbai Municipal Corporation, and the Maharashtra State government – the two authorities which will finally decide whether to renew the lease for the race course or not.

“We will acquire our land on May 31 and have requested the state government to convert the entire 225-acre campus into an international-style park,” Mumbai Mayor Sunil Prabhu, who heads the BMC, told India Real Time in an interview. He did not elaborate on the international features of the proposed park.

Mr. Prabhu said a park on the land would serve more people than the race course and attract tourists to Mumbai, he envisages a garden where people could spend the whole day.

An official in Maharashtra chief minister’s office didn’t immediately comment.

The Royal Western India Turf Club Chairman Khushroo Dhunjibhoy, couldn’t immediately be reached. Calls to the club were not answered.

The future of the racecourse has become a topic of public debate in the city.

On Saturday, the Mumbai arm of the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank, organized a debate about the issue among local residents and members of the Turf Club.

“Our intention was to come up with a solution that benefits (a) larger number of people,” Rishi Aggarwal, a research fellow at ORF, told India Real Time.

The debate became heated at moments, Mr. Aggarwal added, particularly when some taking part described the race course as a “rich man’s club.”

Mr. Aggarwal said that members of the Turf Club told the debate that the walking path on the race course land and their restaurants were already free for the public to use.

Mr. Aggarwal said that his foundation is writing to the civic body to advise them against rushing to renew or cancel the lease agreement on May 31. They should hold a broader public debate to decide on the most suitable use of the property, he added.

The Turf Club is one of the oldest horse racing bodies in India, with more than 7,500 members, according to the club’s website.

It hosts races between November and April at Mahalaxmi, Mumbai and between July and October in the city of Pune, also in Maharashtra.

The club has hosted dignitaries including Queen Elizabeth II, the former Shah of Iran and the King of Saudi Arabia.

The property has a club house, two restaurants, and a walking and jogging track for free public use. It also has a helipad, according to the club’s website.

Although betting is illegal in India, gambling on horse racing, in the confines of the race ground, is allowed, because the sport is considered a game of skill.

@Bombaywalla this must be welcome news for you after your above moan!!

 

[Bombaywalla]

These are, sadly, the backbone of any fire service and they just aren't fit for purpose in the 21st century, for a country like India and especially for the finacial heart of India- one of the globes largest and fastest growing economies.

I couldn't agree with you more re the urgent need to modernise and expand the city's Fire Brigade. I don't have the numbers or statistics to back up what I'm about to say, but I've hardly ever seen any of our old TATA/Leyland fire engines on the roads/at accident sites in the last few years. Maybe it's just me?

@Bombaywalla this must be welcome news for you after your above moan!!

LOL yeah it kind of is, and it'd be awesome for the general public if that were to happen, but based on previous recent experiences, I don't trust the Shiv Sena and their crappy ways one bit. They should stick to politics rather than spew out random ideas on urban development. The race course is less than a 10 minute run from my place, so I have sentimental (and selfish) reasons for not wanting the racecourse to become a space where all of Bombay swarms to.

 

[Abingdonboy]

I couldn't agree with you more re the urgent need to modernise and expand the city's Fire Brigade. I don't have the numbers or statistics to back up what I'm about to say, but I've hardly ever seen any of our old TATA/Leyland fire engines on the roads/at accident sites in the last few years. Maybe it's just me?

Well off course I don't know anything about this. But what are you saying? That many of them are out of service? If that's the case I don't think we've seen any replacements for them as general purpose tenders anywhere in India to date.

I was having this sort of convo with a guy on SSC and he said that there was no need to replace these junks as their annual mileage was very low- he didn't seem to understand that wasn't the issue but the fact they are outrageously outdated. Try as I might he just couldn't get his head around it. He did share a nice bit of info with me though- apparently in the next few months the Mumbai FD will be receiving new ladder trucks based on the TATA PRIMA cheesy:) so @Bombaywalla- be on the look out for them!


The fact of the matter now is that TATA, AL and Mahindra all have suitable replacements for the general purpose tenders (PRIMA, Navistar etc) but what is lacking is the specialist fabricators for emergency vehicles in India. This is an incredibly specialised field and more than often in developed nations it is not the manufacturer of the truck that churns out the finished fire truck but they send it to a third party specilist fabricator who fit all the relevant fire fighting equipment. With the right fabricators there is absolutely no reason India can't be producing products of this quality:

But based on an Indian HGV of course!

Instead of churning out the standard rubbish general purpose tenders that are the backbone of all Indian FDs today.

 

[Abingdonboy]

Guys, for some reason the DFCs in India don't get much attention on this thread and this puzzles me as the significance of such corridors cannot be understated- they are game changers and will add tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars to the Indian GDP. Anyway I'll post some info/pics:

Tata Projects starts work on eastern rail freight corridor
By Vikas Srivastav Mar 08 2013 , Mumbai

The Rs 5,500 crore eastern dedicated rail freight corridor (EDRFC) project has got a major boost with Tata Projects, the infrastructure arm of Tata Group, starting the construction work on the 337 km Bhaupur-Khurja stretch in UP along with the 50:50 joint venture partner Aldesa of Spain.

The entire project is around 1,839 km long and runs from Dhankuni in West Bengal to Ludhiana in Punjab.

The project would help India to have an infrastructure to run rail freight at more than 100 km per hour with 32.5 tonne axle load capacity or the load bearing capacity of the tracks. This is on par with the best in US, Russia and China. At present, the freight runs on passenger tracks with axle load bearing capacity of 22.5 tonne.

The company has started work and expects to complete it by 2016 for trial runs. The commissioning would take place by end 2017.

Vinayak Deshpande, MD of Tata Projects said the project would help to take over the heavy burden of freight from the passenger rail tracks and roads. At present, around 60 per cent of the freight traffic moves on golden quadrilateral, which would definitely get declogged from the eastern to western side, he said.

Aldesa, the Spanish JV partner, will provide the technological expertise in mechanically laying the tracks using the best technologies used in Europe and other developed countries.

Jeorge Ferrandiz Perez, project manager of Aldesa Grupo, said they plan to bid for other projects alongwith Tatas, both on the wastern as well as other corridors coming up across India. “We will look at all the possible options to source the machines from partners in India for the near future. The chances of importing or setting up a plant is highly unlikely in the immediate future,” said Perez.

As on December 31, 2012, Tata Projects is a zero debt company.

Tata Projects starts work on eastern rail freight corridor | mydigitalfc.com

 

[karan21]

Guys, for some reason the DFCs in India don't get much attention on this thread and this puzzles me as the significance of such corridors cannot be understated- they are game changers and will add tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars to the Indian GDP. Anyway I'll post some info/pics:





Tata Projects starts work on eastern rail freight corridor | mydigitalfc.com

No one can every deny their importance. They are right now in initial stages and bidding so let the construction pick up and then surely more media coverage will be given to it. Good thing is that GOI has finally realized that we need ppp based projects in railways. Dmic is directly related to this and over it could do a multiplier effect for the region's economy. Well done GoI.

more news
http://www.business-standard.com/ar...-with-l-t-sojitz-contract-113053100033_1.html

Freight corridor to get Japanese boost with L&T-Sojitz contract
With the award of a Rs 6,700-crore contract for the western arm of the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) to a consortium of Larsen & Toubro and Japan's Sojitz scheduled in a week, India's railway infrastructure would see another major Japanese imprint. India has received the highest Japanese official development assistance. Also, Indian companies have received the second-highest assistance from Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), after Chinese companies.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) was the first major Indian project that saw Japanese funding. Now, the Indian Railway-owned Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC) is set for a long-term engagement with Japan. DFCC was awaiting a clearance for the award of the 640-km Rewari-Palanpur civil contract to the consortium after a two-way contest with Ircon-Mitsui, said a government official. "Right now, DFC is one of the biggest projects Japan is focusing on. Once this is completed, everything else will take off," Tamaki Tsukada, minister (economic), Embassy of Japan, told Business Standard.

The ¥677-billion funding for the western corridor is the first loan to an Indian project under the special terms of economic partnership (STEP), which requires 30 per cent sourcing from Japan and the lead partner in all contracts to be Japanese, said R K Gupta, managing director, DFCC. In return, Japan has extended the loan at a concessional rate of 0.2 per cent to DFCC for 40 years, which includes a 10-year-monatorium on the loan repayment. (JAPANESE AID TO INDIA)

To meet the 30 per cent sourcing norm, DFCC had to purchase 200 locomotives and head-hardened rails from Japan, along with signaling and electrical equipment. This led to fears the STEP model would raise the project cost for the western corridor. "We struggled to resolve the issue and got more competition among Japanese companies through two road shows there," said Gupta. He added finally, the bids for the World Bank-funded eastern corridor became the benchmark for the western corridor.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Japanese government arm for providing technical and financial aid to developing countries, is also DMRC's lending agency. Loans to DMRC fall under official development assistance and have been given at interest rates of 1.2-2.4 per cent; these have a repayment period of 30 years. As much as 60 per cent of the funding for phase-I and 50 per cent for phase-II came from JICA. For the three phases of the Delhi Metro, JICA provided soft loans of ¥502.6 million.

Tsukada said Japan was also focusing on three other projects-- the seawater desalination project at Dahej, Gujarat, the model solar project in Neemrana, Rajasthan, and a gas-fired independent power producer project in Maharashtra.

Though the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, in which Japan is a partner, faced hurdles related to land acquisition, regulatory issues and restrictions on captive power generation, Hiroshi Watanabe, president and chief executive of JBIC, said India ranked second, in terms of countries in which Japanese investors were interested, after China. "This is a very good indication. The government is committed to promoting industrial corridors in India, while Japanese companies are looking at another corridor between Chennai and Bangalore," he said.

JBIC's loans to India stand at $1.6 billion. So far, it has lent towards the creation of manufacturing capacity in the country. The power, steel, electricity and automobile sectors have received loans from JBIC.

 

[Abingdonboy]

No one can every deny their importance. They are right now in initial stages and bidding so let the construction pick up and then surely more media coverage will be given to it. Good thing is that GOI has finally realized that we need ppp based projects in railways. Dmic is directly related to this and over it could do a multiplier effect for the region's economy. Well done GoI.

Work on the DMIC has already started in earnest. Many stretches will be operational by mid-2014 with the entire project looking to achieve the 2017 target for completion which looks likely right now.

Some pics of construction:

^^ Soma Enterprises is constructing 54 bridges on the Vaitarna-Utran section in Gujarat

Cc Indiansunite SSC

More here:

https://www.facebook.com/sunil.nadakkal/photos



Just like the Delhi Metro it seems that other regions/states are now jumping on the band wagon and wanting their own industrial corridors!!

TN pushes for industrial corridors to aid growth - Times Of India

 

[karan21]

Work on the DMIC has already started in earnest. Many stretches will be operational by mid-2014 with the entire project looking to achieve the 2017 target for completion which looks likely right now.

Some pics of construction:

^^ Soma Enterprises is constructing 54 bridges on the Vaitarna-Utran section in Gujarat

Cc Indiansunite SSC

More here:

https://www.facebook.com/sunil.nadakkal/photos



Just like the Delhi Metro it seems that other regions/states are now jumping on the band wagon and wanting their own industrial corridors!!

TN pushes for industrial corridors to aid growth - Times Of India

True. India states and center no matter which party they are from are ready to cooperate when it comes to these industrial corridors. Finally India is uniting for growth.

India has a history of establishing new cities. Navi Mumbai, jamshedpur, Gurgaon, Noida are all cities built from scratch. But these cities are not world class as they were built without foreign consultants and planning. Now the cities under DMIC and other corridors are being built under plans made by the top notch consultants from all over the world. Only the best plan is executed. Good to see this proactive attitude from GoI. Moreover involvement of Japnese, Korean, European companies will help India gain valueable experience in this field.

This man can now break or make India.