In a bid to drive out the highways sector from a severe financial crunch, the Economic Survey proposed to ease exit norms for developers to free up equity for new projects.

“In current market conditions, these firms are unable to raise new equity. Exit route needs to be eased so that promoters can sell equity positions after construction, passing on all benefits and responsibilities to entities that step in,” the survey, presented in Parliament on Wednesday said.

After a concerted push from the road transport ministry, the finance ministry has agreed to consider offering concessions to stuck highway projects under the public private partnership (PPP) mode.

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.

Escalators, connected , footbridges at platforms

The World Bank plans to fund a Rs 110-crore project to prevent trespassing on Mumbai’s rail tracks and thus prevent accidents. The project entails the construction of escalators, elevators and footbridges at suburban railway stations. As many as 31 footbridges, six escalators, five elevators, one subway and a road over bridge will be built.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Tuesday approved eight projects, including 'Shikalbaha 225-MW Duel-fuel Combined Cycle Power Plant', with an outlay of Tk 7,882.

The Haryana Government has revised the norms, guidelines and parameters for grant of permission for Change of Land Use (CLU) for development of retail outlets and fuel filling stations other than CNG (compressed natural gas) or PNG (piped natural gas).

Stating this here on Tuesday, a spokesman of the Town & Country Planning Department added that while considering or examining CLU application for setting up retail outlets, fuel filling stations in controlled areas, land requirement and other parameters as per new guiding principles shall be followed.In case of independent petrol pumps along National Highways, the minimum area for independent fuel filling stations would be 35 metres by 35 metres on undivided carriageway. On divided carriageway, it would be 35 metres (frontage) by 45 metres.

Presenting a please-all R60,303 crore Budget, Orissa finance minister Prasana Acharya doled out largesses to the voters keeping the assembly election, due in May 2014, in mind

Pocket money for youth, free mobiles for farmers, pre-paid sim cards for fishermen, blankets to aged people are what the government has promised in the Budget. Taking a cue from Karnataka, the state government for the first time presented the Budget in two parts—Agriculture Budget Part I and General Budget Part II—in the House.

New Delhi: Investor apathy to public-private partnership (PPP) projects in highways has forced the government to revisit the old engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model after a four-y

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.

The Chinese government plans to allocate 120 billion yuan ($19.11 billion) to fund local transport infrastructure construction in 2013, the Ministry of Finance has announced.