Infrastructure and Energy Sector

[Sridhar]

India to miss power target by 15,000 MW

16 September 2009


In news that would come as no surprise to power sector watchers, a government official has admitted that India may miss its power capacity addition target of 80,000 MW in the 11th Five-Year Plan by about 15,000 MW, as the power ministry has been able to achieve only 20 per cent of the planned electricity addition in the first two and half years of the plan period (2007-12).
Business Standard quotes an unnamed official source as saying, "So far (from April 2007-August 2009) only 17,000 MW (which is a little over 20 per cent of the target) of electricity has been added." He added that by the end of the plan period, it is likely that the ministry may miss the target by about 15,000 MW.
Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia had earlier acknowledged that the country may miss its power capacity addition target for the 11th plan period.

domain-b.com : India to miss power target by 15,000 MW

 

[RPK]

The Hindu : News / International : Russia to help boost solar energy in India

Renewable energy, health care, drug discovery and nanotechnologies will be among thrust areas of cooperation in science and technology between India and Russia under a new bilateral programme for 2010-2020.

The new programme to be signed next year will be a renewal of the Integrated Long-Term Programme (ILTP) of Cooperation in Science & Technology that the two countries first signed in 1987. Over the past 20 years more than 500 projects have been successfully accomplished under the ILTP title and another 80 projects are in the pipeline, said C.N.R. Rao, who is in Russia to co-chair the 16th session of the ILTP Joint Council.

He hopes cooperation with Russia will give India technologies to tap solar energy in a big way.

“Solar energy is the key to meeting India’s fast growing energy needs 30 years from now,” Prof. C.N.R. Rao told Indian media based in Moscow.

“We must dramatically bring down the cost of solar energy to parity levels with fossil fuels.”

As a first step, India and Russia plan to set up a joint venture for large-scale production of silicon wafers in Russia using abundant hydropower in Siberia, which is substantially cheaper than electricity generated in India. This is a third time in a decade that India plans to tie up with Russia for silicon production.

Earlier, officials say, India could not spare at least $200 million to invest in the project and did not feel such urgency for alternative energy.

“We have already tested Russian 170-micron silicon plates and signed an agreement for the monthly supply of half a million such wafers,” said Prof. Samir K. Brahmachari, Secretary-General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

India also hopes to source from Russia new non-silicon technologies for utilising solar energy.

Under an MoU with Russia’s Ioffe Physics Institute, the CSIR will test in its laboratories prototype photo-material developed by Russian scientists, Prof. Brahmachari said.

Health care
He is also looking to Russia to help India provide affordable health care to the poor. Two teams of young Russian scientists have joined the CSIR’s open source drug discovery initiative to produce cheap drugs to cure tuberculosis.

In another major development, the Department of Atomic Energy is negotiating for India to become a member of the international Dubna Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, a top-notch Russian nuclear centre, Prof. C.N.R. Rao said.

India already has a cooperation agreement with the Kurchatov Institute, another Russian nodal centre for nuclear research.

 

[ajay_ijn]

JSW Energy to begin commercial ops at Rajasthan project
JSW Energy to begin commercial ops at Rajasthan project

JSW Energy, part of Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Group, today said it will start commercial operation at the first unit of 135 mega watt at the Rajastan power project.

JSW Energy has already synchronised the first unit of the Rs 5,000 crore project with national grid. JSW Group is implementing the 8X135 Mw Lignite based power project in Barmer district of Rajasthan, through its wholly owned subsidiary namely Raj WestPower Limited. The project is based on lignite to be mined from the Jalipa and Kapurdi mines.

The company expects to commence the operations of the entire project by October 2010. The total investment is Rs 5,000 crores for the power project and approximately Rs 702 crore for the lignite mining. The entire power will be sold to Rajasthan State Electricity Distribution companies.

To part finance various projects including the power plant and lignite mining projects at Barmer, JSW Energy is palnning an initial public offering of equity shares of Rs 3,000 crores and has filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus with Sebi.

would provide some much needed capacity addition to power sector this season.

144 km rural roads every day in FY09
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/144-km-rural-roads-builtday-in-fy09/370358/
There is a great story developing in one segment of the roads sector — rural roads — where the pace of construction has been steadily picking up. A record 144 kilometres of roads were built every day last year (2008-09) and the target this year (ending March 2010) is to take this up to 151 kilometres per day.

This is in stark contrast to the pace of construction of the national highways which had slackened to about 4 km a day. Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath wants to scale this up to 20 km a day.

A typical rural road is, however, built for low volume of traffic and therefore easier to construct. It could cost anywhere from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 40 lakh a kilometre, whereas national highways cost Rs 6-10 crore per kilometre. These rural roads are being constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), which aims at linking all habitations with a population of 500 or above (250 or above in some priority states) with all-weather roads.

PMGSY was launched in December 2000 with a target to connect about 168,000 habitations. The last estimated project cost (at 2003-04 prices) is Rs 1.3 lakh crore for building 365,094 km of roads and for upgrading an additional 368,000 km.

About a third of these habitations were taken up for connectivity under the Bharat Nirman programme. Despite the hectic pace, the Bharat Nirman target of March 2009 could not be met, and it is running behind schedule. “I would not say that we are behind schedule. I would say that we have been over-ambitious in setting targets,” said a senior official of the National Rural Roads Development Agency (NRRDA), who did not want to be named.

“The Bharat Nirman targets are likely to be completed by 2010-11,” the official added. NRRDA was set up under the rural development ministry in 2002 to monitor, support and drive the rural roads programme. The whole programme of providing connectivity to the 168,000 identified habitations is likely to be completed only by 2015, since as of June 30, 2009, only about 40 per cent of the eligible habitations had been connected.

Various measures have been taken to expedite the construction of rural roads and bring it to the current level. The bid documents are standardised. There is an objective formula to decide the depth and the strength of the road to be built. Timelines for completion of road construction are also fixed at the outer limit of 21 months.

Though rural roads is a state subject, it was taken up by the Centre, recognizing “centrality” of all weather access and mobility. The funding for the programme is partly from the cess levied on diesel and partly through loans arranged from multilateral institutions. The maintenance of these roads is, however, funded by the state governments.

 

[NSG_Blackcats]

World Bank to provide $3 Billion for Road projects​

NEW YORK: The World Bank has agreed to provide a USD 3 billion-loan for developing national highways. The World Bank assistance will be utilised for converting 6,372 km of one-lane highways to two-lane, out of the total of 19,702 km of single lane highways in the country. "They have (World Bank) for the first time informed me that they will be willing to fund the viability gap funding and also fund 50 per cent of our annuity projects," Kamal Nath told the Indian media here after concluding his week-long tour to the United States yesterday. Nath also announced the construction of 18,000 kms of expressways in the country. "We are going to set up an expressway division in the next fortnight and I propose bringing in legislation for Expressway Authority of India," he said. "Roads in India are not merely a matter of connectivity but is an important component of inclusive growth," he said, adding the total project costs for 2009-2010 is estimated at USD 20 billion. Both debt equity and pension funds are being invited to participate in this programme, he said. The share of private sector investment in this will be about USD 12 billion.

Link

 

[NSG_Blackcats]

Government is bullish on $80b road programme​

On a four-nation (London, New York, Singapore and Zurich) road show to hard sell the India infrastructure story, roads and highways minister Kamal Nath has expressed confidence that overseas investors including US funds were keen to invest $10 billion over the next three years. A Bloomberg report, quoting Nath, said, while buyout funds may finance road-building, pension funds may look at the post-construction phase.

A recent Global Economics Paper by Goldman Sachs projects Indian’s infrastructure funding needs over the decade at $1.7 trillion. It also says that India’s growth is directly linked to how quickly the country puts infrastructure projects on the fast-track. The country embarked upon its National Highway Development Programme of connecting all metros and the north-south-east-west corridors a decade back.

Now, the plan is to set up expressways (18,000 km), mega projects (above $1-billion in size) and upgrade over 6,000 km. In fact, the World Bank has come forward to provide a $3-billion loan for highway development. The government is bullish that the private sector will contribute to nearly $45 billion of the $80-billion programme.

It appears that the private sector is more than happy to lap up the opportunity. A PTI report, quoting ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar, says, the $20-billion road programme offered an attractive opportunity for both equity and debt investors. “The roads asset is an asset-class that provides a very steady and stable return to investors,” she said, in the report.

Link

 

[NSG_Blackcats]

Indian wind energy could cover 24% of the country’s power needs by 2030

 

[NSG_Blackcats]

India slips to fifth position in total installed wind capacity​

India has slipped to the fifth position in total wind power installed capacity at the end of calendar 2008, with China overtaking it by a huge margin in terms of both new capacity and total installed capacity. According to the Global Wind Energy Council, a global forum for the wind energy sector, India added 1,800 MW during the year taking the total installed capacity to 9,645 MW. China, in comparison, added 6,300 MW, second only to the US in new additions, taking its installed capacity at the end of the year to 12,210 MW. The US, with 8,358 MW added during the year, has edged past Germany to become the leading country as far as wind energy installed capacity goes.

Link

 

[NSG_Blackcats]

world’s largest solar steam cooking system​

The World’s largest solar steam cooking system installed at Shri Saibaba Sansthan, Trust, Shirdi for cooking food for 20,000 pilgrims per day was inaugurated by Dr. Farooq Abdhullah, Hon’ble Minister for New & Renewable Energy on 30th July, 2009. The system has been designed and installed by M/s Gadhdia Solar Energy System (P) Ltd. Valsad, Gujarat and has been completed within a short time of 10 months.
The system comprise of 73 automatically tracked solar dishes, each of 16 sq. m aperture area, placed in series and parallel combination. About 3500 kg of steam at desired pressure and temperature is being generated from this system every day which is sufficient to cook food for 20,000 people/ day.

Link

 

[NSG_Blackcats]

Reliance tries its luck again in Cauvery offshore​

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has returned to the Cauvery offshore block, and officials told Business Line that the initial testing of the reservoir in the appraisal well suggests good hydrocarbon prospects. In 2007, the company had run out of luck in CY-DWN-2001/2 (CY-III-D5), after striking oil and gas in only one out of three wells drilled. In the fourth appraisal well that RIL began drilling in July, “an increase in thickness of the pay zone is visible,” according to the sources. Simply put, the term ‘thickness of pay zone’ indicates the quantum of oil and gas reserves available in the particular area.

Drilling is expected to be completed shortly, the sources said. “The initial testing undertaken by RIL simultaneously with the drilling activity has indicated good prospects. During the testing, officials from the Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons were also present,” the sources said. However, the officials are cautious talking about the quantum of reserves, as an assessment on the commerciality of the find will be made after the drilling is completed, and then the find tested and appraised.

RIL had struck hydrocarbon in the first well drilled in the block but had to abandon the second well due to a technical snag. The third well was dry. The find in the first well showed that there were two oil-bearing zones. According to initial tests, in the first, RIL struck 550 barrels/day of oil and one million cubic ft a day of gas, while in the second zone, it found 31 million cubic ft a day of gas and 1,200 barrels/day of condensate. The company re-entered this NELP-III block this year after it had to a large extent finished its development activities in its prolific Krishna-Godavari Basin D6 block. RIL holds 100 per cent interest in CY-III-D5. In CY-III-D5, RIL is committed to drill 11 wells in three exploratory phases. Of these, it has drilled three wells and drilling is on in the fourth.

As on date, RIL has 30 oil and gas blocks, and has made 42 discoveries (both commercial and non-commercial) including five in Yemen with a success ratio of 60 per cent. In blocks such as CY-III-D5 that are called wild cat blocks, the success ratio is one in 10 globally. The wild cat blocks are new frontier areas. In 2007, the company had run out of luck in CY-DWN-2001/2 (CY-III-D5), after striking oil and gas in only one out of three wells drilled.

Link

 

[Sridhar]

World Bank loan in pocket, Nath confident of road-building plans

19 September 2009
Back from the US after having successfully negotiated a $3-billion loan from the World Bank for developing national highways, road and transport minister Kamal Nath on Friday said he is optimistic of achieving the target of building 7,000 km of roads a year. (See: World Bank sanctions $3 billion for national highways)
The World Bank assistance will be utilised to convert 6,372km of one-lane highways into two-lane. There are a total of 19,702-km single-lane highways in the country.
''They (World Bank) have, for the first time, informed me that they will be willing to fund the viability gap and also 50 per cent of our annuity projects,'' Nath told the media in Delhi. ''We are going to set up an expressway division in the next fortnight and I propose bringing in legislation for Expressway Authority of India,'' he added.
Later in an interview to CNBC-TV18, Nath said his biggest challenge is capacity building. He said currently the country was building 2 km of roads a day, but this should go up to 20 km. ''From 2 to 20 - we are going to make this quantum jump,'' he said.

''In this huge programme, the biggest challenge is capacity building. When you want to build 7,000 km a year, we have got to be having 20,000 km of work in progress. To manage 20,000 km of work in progress is a phenomenal job. So, we have got to do capacity building first at home,'' he said.

domain-b.com : World Bank loan in pocket, Nath confident of road-building plans

 

[Pintu]

Second Duronto express launched; Chennai-Delhi trip in 27 hrs- Railways-Transportation-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

Second Duronto express launched; Chennai-Delhi trip in 27 hrs
21 Sep 2009, 1635 hrs IST, PTI

CHENNAI: The country's second Duronto Express (DE) a non-stop point service between Chennai Central and Delhi, covering 2,177 kms, was launched here today by the Southern Railway.

To cover the entire distance the train takes even less time than the famed Rajdhani Express - 27 hours and 55 minutes compared to 28 hours and 10 minutes.

The coaches in DE are fit for a speed of 130 kmph against 110 kmph for conventional mail and express trains.

"As and when the Chennai-New Delhi track gets upgraded,the speed of DE will also be increased, further saving the journey time by about two hours", Southern Railway General Manager M S Jayanth said during the flagging off ceremony of the 'Chennai Central-Hazrat Nizamuddin' DE at the Central Railway station.

Dwelling on its unique features, not available now in conventional trains, he said the body shells of coaches are made of stainless steel, resulting in a tare weight reduction of two tonnes, enabling higher speeds up to 130kmph.

This also reduces corrosion repairs and maintenance costs. "The exterior of the coach has been provided with high quality vinyl wrap with an artistic design, which has been designed by the Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee herself", he added.

Jayanth said the DE coaches are two meters longer than conventional coaches, resulting in increased seating capacity. The AC 3-tier has 13 per cent additional seating capacity, AC 2-tier cum AC 3-tier 14 per cent and sleeper class 8.3 per cent, he said.

"All coaches have been provided with auto closing vestibule doors", he said, adding that these would shut automatically in the event of a fire and prevent the flames from spreading to adjacent coaches.

Another unique feature was better sound insulation, to cut down on noise levels. "Air springs have been used instead of coil springs to enable better ride quality", he added.

Jayanth also claimed that the fares of the DE, a weekly train, are lower than that of the Rajdhani.

The country's first DE train was flagged off by the Railway minister on September 18 between Sealdah-Delhi.

 

[Sridhar]

Gurjarat Petro's KG basin gas requires $1.7-billion investment

domain-b.com : Gurjarat Petro's KG basin gas requires $1.7-billion investment

NALCO enters power sector; to sign MoU with NPCIL
domain-b.com : NALCO enters power sector; to sign MoU with NPCIL

 

[RPK]

BBC NEWS | Business | World Bank lends $4.3bn to India

The World Bank is to provide India with$4.3bn (£2.6bn) in loans, including $2bn to support its state-owned banks.

The organisation expects India's economic growth to slow to as little as 5.5% in 2009, down from almost 10% two years ago.

"This is a crucial time to support India," said Roberto Zagha, the World Bank country director for India.

The loans will mainly be used to fund infrastructure projects and support companies that need credit.

'Doubts linger'

"While the worst of the crisis seems to be behind us, doubts linger about the strength of the comeback, partly because the strength of the global recovery is uncertain," Mr Zagha said.

"Today's support will help maintain credit growth and continued infrastructure investments."

The loans came in response to Indian requests for more support to help it cope with the economic downturn.

The $2bn loan to the banking sector will help "prevent shortages of capital from leading to a slowdown in credit growth, and provide a capital buffer to public sector banks to absorb the possible increase in non-performing assets," the World Bank said.

A 28-year loan of $1.195bn is aimed at a range of infrastructure projects including "selected power, roads, and ports projects", it said.

Another $1bn loan is aimed at strengthening India's electricity transmission system.

The World Bank also approved smaller loans to Vietnam, Hungary, Latvia and Nepal.

 

[NSG_Blackcats]

World Bank approves $4.3bn loan for infrastructure in India​

WASHINGTON: The World Bank has approved four projects worth $4.3 billion to India to bolster its economic stimulus programme and support the infrastructure sector. Of this $2 billion is Banking Sector Support Loan, which will provide budgetary support to India, helping it maintain its broad economic stimulus program by enhancing the capital of select public sector banks. This loan will help maintain credit growth levels, support social banking and employment growth, and help strengthen the economic recovery ahead, the World Bank said in a media statement. Another loan of $1.2 billion to the India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd. (IIFCL) is designed to support its role to catalyze private financing for public-private partnerships in (PPPs) infrastructure and stimulate the development of a long-term local currency debt financing market, the Bank said.

The World Bank also approved another $1 billion loan to the Power Grid Corporation of India for the Fifth Power System Development Project. It is designed to help address India's acute deficit of power, the bank said. Lastly, the Bank approved $150 million for the Andhra Pradesh Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project, aimed at improving water supply and sanitation services in 2,600 villages across six districts of the State.

Link

 

[NSG_Blackcats]

ONGC to invest Rs 50,000 cr in oil, gas fields​

New Delhi: State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) is investing over Rs 50,000 crore (USD 10 billion) in developing new oil and gas fields and increasing output from existing ones, company's Chairman R S Sharma said on Wednesday. Of this amount, over Rs 16,000 crore is being invested to improve output from seven fields, he told company's shareholders. ONGC had invested over Rs 14,000 crore in 14 Improved Oil Recovery (IOR)/Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) schemes (during 2000 to 2009) to raise recovery factor to 33 per cent from 28 per cent earlier, he said. The investments would help the company offset the decline in output that has set in mature fields like Mumbai High.

ONGC is investing more than Rs 15,000 crore in the second phase of redevelopment of its prime Mumbai High fields in the western offshore. It is investing Rs 8,061.42 crore in Mumbai High South by April 2011 for an incremental 20.7 million tonnes of oil and 3.32 billion cubic meters of gas by 2029-30. Besides, ONGC is investing Rs 6,855.93 crore in Mumbai High North by September 2012 for an additional 17.35 million tonnes of oil and 2.98 bcm of gas by 2029-30. It is investing Rs 1,262.93 crore by 2011 in G-1 and GS-15 fields, its first major east coast development, to boost gas output by 2.62 million cubic meters per day. Besides, Rs 3,195.16 crore in development of C-Series fields off the Mumbai coast would give 15.14 bcm of gas in 15 years. Other investments include Rs 2,305.30 crore in Heera and South Heera redevelopment, Rs 2,323.40 crore in B-22 cluster fields, Rs 1,436.21 crore in B-46 cluster fields and Rs 3,248.78 crore in B-193 cluster fields off the west coast.

Full Story

 

[RPK]

fullstory

'India for partnership with Japan in green tech'

United Nations, Sept 23 (PTI) Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh expressed hope of a long-term partnership with Japan in the field of green technology, praising the message given by Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama at the high-level Climate Change Summit here.

"I think the Japanese Prime Minister was very bold and he made a very specific commitment," Ramesh told PTI.

The minister also called US President Barack Obama's speech as "inspirational" but "not substantive". "The US president was not concrete."

In a bilateral meeting with Japanese officials, Ramesh discussed a partnership agreement in the field of technology for climate change.

"Japan is the leading technology player. We are now building new power plants, which will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions with the help of Japan," he said, pointing out that the first supercritical power plant in India is being built with Toshiba technology.

 

[NSG_Blackcats]

RIL signs GSPA with NTPC for supply of natural gas​

New Delhi: Reliance Industries on Thursday said it has signed natural gas sales pact with state-run NTPC Ltd. "RIL executed Gas Sale and Purchase Agreements (GSPAs) with NTPC for supply of gas from KG-D6 block to the power plants of NTPC in Anta, Dadri and Faridabad," a company spokesperson said. "The volume of gas under these GSPAs is 0.61 mmscmd, which will be initially supplied only to the power plant in Anta due to capacity constraint in GAIL's pipeline," he said. The quantities and price of USD 4.2 per mmBtu for gas under the GSPAs signed for five years are as approved by the government. Supply of gas to NTPC is expected to commence within a week, the spokesperson said.

Link

 

[natarajan]

Tata power plans Rs. 21,600 cr expansion

Tata Power will invest Rs 21,600 crore by 2012 to add an additional capacity of around 5,300 MW by 2012. The company is already
generating 2,768 MW electricity.

The company will not go for ultra mega power project (UMPP) of 4,000 MW and above till global financial condition revives, said the executive director S Ramakrishnan. He said, at present, the high borrowing cost will make large power projects, which would require large foreign borrowing, unviable. He further clarified that Tata Power will not bid for UMPP if domestic coal is not made available.

Ramakrishnan said that according to the existing projects, under consideration and implementation, the company will have a generating capacity of 12,000 MW by 2014. Going forward, he said, the company would focus on the power plants with low carbon emission. By 2017, he said, the low carbon emission plants would contribute 25% to 30% of the group's total generating capacity. At present, it generates 450 MW hydroelectricity and 200 MW electricity from wind energy.

The projected 12,000 MW capacity by 2014 includes the company's projects at various stages of implementation like 4,000 MW ultra Mega power project at Mundra, 1050 MW Maithon power plant and 120 MW Jojobera power plant in Jharkhand, 1,000 MW in Naraj Mathapur and 500 MW near proposed Kalinga Steel Plant in Orissa.

Besides these projects, the company will also implement a number of power projects for the captive use of its group company Tata Steel. It will implement 525 MW power plant in collaboration with Tata Steel in the Netherland for the captive use of Tata Corus steel plants. The company is planning to commission 1,600 MW capacity of its 4,000 MW Mundra project in Gujarat during the current XIth Five Year Plan.

 

[natarajan]

some facts about dynamic gujarat

* Longest Coastline in India- 1600 Kms


* Highest number of Ports- 42


* Number of Airports- 13


* SEZ Led development- 13


* Focused Product Clusters- 83


* World's Largest Irrigation Canal (Narmada Canal)


* World's 3rd Largest Grassroot Petroleum Refinery at Jamnagar


* Pragmatic Governance


* Tops the Economic Freedom index in the country


* The only state having flexible labor policies in SEZs


* The only state to provide 24 hrs electricity to all its 18000 villages with assured high quality power supply


* The only State to have an Integrated State-Wide Gas Grid as well as the only two LNG Terminals of the country


* The only State to have inter linkages across 20 rivers


* The first State to enter into an agreement with World Bank for Carbon Trading and is set to become the World's 'Solar Valley' for the development of renewable energy products

source

 

[natarajan]

Rajkot - Ahmadabad corridor

The Rs 1,100 crore Ahmedabad-Rajkot high speed access control corridor will be a boon for both central Gujarat and Saurashtra. With travel time reducing from the existing 5 to 3 hours between Sarkhej crossroads and Bamanbore, the upcoming corridor can lead to faster movement of goods and people between the two regions.One of the objectives of the corridor was to develop regions around Rajkot, Jamnagar and Amreli in Saurashtra and a large portion of towns around Ahmedabad. This project corridor connects Ahmedabad and Rajkot districts and passes through the central Gujarat and Saurashtra.It further establishes connectivity with Kutch on the Western side and North and South Gujarat on eastern side of the state.With Saurashtra and central Gujarat alone expecting investments worth Rs 46,562 crore and Rs 21,486 crore respectively, which is 40 per cent of total investments promised to the state during Vibrant 2007, the corridor’s importance is being realized. Besides this, 9,633 industries are located in these two regions of the total 19,661 units in the state. This would see movement of 3.38 lakh labourers of the total 8.15 lakh labour population in the state. With the investments coming in, additional movement of 1.08 lakh labour population is expected in the coming years.Another important sector is ports. Nearly 10 ports spread over Saurashtra will gain the most from the corridor, according to the GIDB study. These ports include Navlakhi, Bedi, Okha, Kandla, Pipava, Sikha, Porbander, Bhavnagar and Dwarka. They have together handled 816 lakh metric tonnes goods in 2006-07, which is steep rise from 571 lakh metric tonnes in 2000-01.Within the two regions, Saurashtra boasts of some of the major tourist locations including Junagadh, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Porbander. Apart from archeological heritage, there are wild life sanctuaries and other important pilgrim centres in the region. Tourist movement along the proposed project corridor is also significant.Another important sector like agriculture development is significant in the project influence area, according to GIDB. The important crops include cotton, groundnut, bajra. Irrigated stretches of land can also be seen in project influence areas.Jamnagar, Surendranagar, Porbander, Ahmedabad, Sabarkantha, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Junagadh are the major upcoming regions of the state. Stone, manganese, other clay, bauxite and gypsum are important minerals.
Cruising down at the speed of 100 km an hour to Rajkot will not be a dream for many Amdavadis any more. The Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board (GIDB) and the roads and building department have modelled a Rs 1,100 crore makeover for national Highway - NH8A between Sarkhej cross-roads and Bamanbore with central government assistance.The ambitious project is called the Ahmedabad-Rajkot high speed access controlled corridor. A project report prepared by LEA associates has been sent to the central government for approval. The project will be undertaken in two phases.The first phase would see the first 47 kilometre stretch from Sarkhej while the second stretch will be 122 kilometre.The project would be maintained by both the union roads transport and highway department and the state government.The corridor which will be 167.8 km long would be a combination of six lane and four lane roads.There would be two separate barricaded lanes for mixed, slow moving and local traffic that are destined towards small intervening towns. This traffic would not be allowed to mix with those on the corridor.The high speed corridor expects an average speed of 100 km an hour. At the moment the speed on the highway varies from 58 kmph and 61 kmph. The project would maintain road width between 45 metres and 60 metres in width.A total of four toll plazas are being planned on the corridor. Six flyovers, each of six lanes, is being planned between Harbad stream and Chotila town, while three new six-lane bridges are planned on Bhogavo, Nalla and Harbad streams.One of the key features of the corridor will be the special cattle crossing zones at Bhagula, Vadod, Sapar and Bagodara which happen to be one of the main reasons for major accidents on roads.