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.

PUNE: The much-delayed Pune metro rail project got a funding of Rs 10.01 crore in the Union Budget on Thursday. The Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporations, that have proposed the project in association with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, have already made provisions in their respective budgets for the year 2013-14.

The budgetary head, 'Pune Metro', figures in the list of projects of the urban development department for the first time this year in budget. The total funding of Rs 10.01 crore has been bifurcated into three components.

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

The 555-km Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad project from which the developer GMR Infrastructure pulled out in early January citing huge delays in clearances, has now got all requisite approvals from the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF). According to sources, with Gujarat, one of the two states through which the highway passes, also giving forest clearance, the MoEF has given the green signal for the project.

The Rajasthan portion of the six-laning project was cleared earlier and in a meeting today, the Gujarat portion was also approved, paving the way for the project to be cleared from the angles of both environment and forest regulations, a ministry official said.

INDORE: The Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) of Indore will be the second project of its own kind in the country. The project, which was likely to become operational by mid-April, is being constructed on the lines of already existing BRTS project in Ahmedabad.

The project, which will cover 11.5 km stretch on the AB Road initially, will have all the eight elements which the full-fledged BRTS in Ahmedabad boasts of having with itself. These issues were discussed during a review meeting of the project which was held here on Thursday. The meeting was attended by all the topbrass officials, attached with the project

New State-Level Housing Regulatory Authority Soon

Gandhinagar: TheGujarat government is expected to announce an affordable housing policy during the forthcoming budget session of the assembly. Officials of the state’s urban development department, revenue department and finance department are burning the midnight oil to give final shape to the ambitious plan, which was a poll promise made by chief minister Narendra Modi in the run up to the December assembly polls.

Gandhinagar: Swine flu casualties in the past few weeks in the state have baffled the state health department.

AHMEDABAD: When the state urban housing and urban development department offered the much-awaited concessions in FSI rates for affordable houses along SP Ring Road on Monday it clearly spelt out th

JAIPUR: In a major relief to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) in Rajasthan, the forest advisory committee (FAC) on February 4 granted clearance for widening of the Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad highway. With the approval, work on the project is expected to begin soon.

FAC, the statutory body for advising on forest clearances, has given the long pending nod for diversion of 78 hectare of forest land to widen the Kishangarh-Udaipur- Ahmedabad section of NH 79A, NH 79, NH 76 and NH8 from four lane to six lane in favour of NHAI. The permission was granted after the concessionaire in the project, GMR, terminated its contract in the absence of forest clearance.

Ahmedabad: Gujarat government has cleared a pilot project worth Rs 252.67 crore to make Ahmedabad slum-free. The clearance came at a meeting of the high-level state steering committee of the urban development mission, chaired by urban development minister Anandiben Patel.

The project is to be executed under the centrally-sponsored Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) that was publicized by the Congress before the last state election under the name ‘Ghar nu ghar’. The state government has also approved a pilot project for Rajkot worth Rs 20 crore under the same scheme.