With the Union urban ministry emphasizing the funding of major transportation projects in the country, Gujarat's cities have readied teams to lobby for multi-crore BRTS projects to be taken up on priority basis in the coming JNNURM committee meeting. The Union budget has made provisions for almost Rs 14,873 crore - a major portion of which will be directed at buying 10,000 buses across the country.

Gujarat cities like Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara which are either at key points in their BRTS projects, or have yet to start work, would be visiting Delhi in the coming few weeks.

The Gujarat government on Tuesday tabled an irrigation Bill in the Assembly which seeks to make it compulsory for farmers to get a licence to draw water from canal or ground well beyond a certain limit and prescribes penal action, including imprisonment, against the errant farmers.

The Bill also seeks to charge farmers for irrigation water reaching any cultivated land within 200 metres of a canal either by percolation or leakage, surface flow or by means of a well-sunk from the canal.

Gujarat government has spent about Rs 796 crores for constructing 17,148 houses in Ahmedabad city for the rehabilitation of slum dwellers.

Environmentalists in Gujarat have claimed that the March 5 environmental public hearing (EPH) for the 6,000-MWe nuclear power plant in Saurashtra’s Bhavnagar district will be on the basis of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) by Engineers India Limited, which did not have the necessary accreditation.

Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti, a leading environment action body in Gujarat, has demanded that the public hearing for the project at Mithi Virdi be stopped and the EIA submitted by Engineers India scrapped.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat had promised in its 2012 election manifesto that it will build 50 lakh low-cost houses at a cost of Rs.33,000 crore during the next five years, but the very first Budget of the newly-elected Narendra Modi Government has found just about Rs.4,000 crore for the purpose. By common arithmetic, at an average of Rs.4,000 crore a year the estimated allocation for the much-touted project has been slashed to Rs.20,000 crore in five years – as much as Rs.13,000 crore less.

“Though even Rs.33,000 crore is less to build that kind of housing infrastructure, the allocation of Rs.4,000 crore this financial year is peanuts,” points out Jayanti Dave, known Gujarat economist and veteran business journalist.

Gandhinagar: The incidences of swine flu continues unabated in the state as seven fresh cases of patients testing positive for the virus came to light on Thursday. Of these, five cases have been reported from Rajkot while one each was reported from Bharuch and Surat.

The flu that is also referred to as H1N1 virus has claimed 30 lives in Gujarat in the past two months, health minister Nitin Patel said in the state assembly on Thursday. An alert has been sounded in the health fraternity regarding the virus which has Saurashtra in its grip. Patel said that H1N1 virus was a cause of concern which has spiked because of the prolonged winter.

Ahmedabad: For flamingos, Khadir region was already a death trap; and now, the birds are finding it lethal to fly into Haripar village in Maliya. Over 20 flamingos were found dead on Wednesday.

The Gujarat government on Wednesday announced its annual budget for 2013-14, pegged at R1,14,450 crore with an annual development plan of R58,500 crore.

The farmer-youth-women centric budget presented by finance minister Nitin Patel has allocated the largest chunk of available resources to social service (R24,586 crore), followed by irrigation and flood control (R12,660 crore), transportation (R5,006 crore), energy (R4,996 crore), industries and mines (R 2,455 crore), agri and allied services (R3,763 crore).

VADODARA: Almost a decade after he single-handedly got the world heritage status by UNESCO for the lost city of Champaner, noted architect Karan Grover has initiated his next mission for the cause of sustainable buildings.

For the next one year, Grover will be reaching out to 10,000 students of architecture, initiating them to the green cause, calling it the 'Students Green Movement'. The aim of the mission is to encourage the young architects to promote green buildings.

Honda may soon follow erstwhile JV partner Hero MotoCorp into Gujarat, with plans to set up its fourth two-wheeler plant in the state, sources told FE. The Japanese company is believed to have scouted for land near Sanand, where both Tata Motors and Ford have set up their manufacturing units.

The move is in line with Honda Scooter and Motorcycle India's target of displacing Hero from the top spot in the two-wheeler market by 2020 for which it has planned an annual capacity of 10 million units across 7-8 manufacturing units.