New Delhi: The World Bank has lined up an over $4.83-billion loan to India for ramping up road and rail infrastructure over the next five years as part of country assistance programme to help boost economic development, officials said on Thursday.

The bank is also looking at funding possibilities in ports and inland waterways projects, being planned by the government during the 12th Plan period. However, the funding from the bank could come with riders on safety and maintenance.

A day after chief minister Sheila Dikshit pulled up the PWD for illegal tree felling in Vasant Kunj, lieutenant governor Tejendra Khanna chaired a meeting with officials from PWD, BSES Rajdhani, DJB and residents of Vasant Kunj on Tuesday.

In the meeting, the LG directed PWD to stop work in the area and come up with a new plan involving minimum disruption, after proper consultation with local residents and RWA members.

Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan declared that there was no bottleneck in green clearances, and made public the status of various projects, as she sought to counter barbs from companies and colleagues in the government about alleged delays in clearances.

“My object in giving all the details is to show that there is no delay in terms of processing. There is no bottleneck in this ministry and all projects that can be cleared have been cleared and we are not a bottleneck by any stretch of imagination,” Natarajan said.

Minister says delay is due to adverse weather and hurdles in land acquisition

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways C.P. Joshi on Tuesday revealed that only 100 km of the 2,400-km Trans-Arunachal Highway announced under the Prime Minister’s package for Arunachal Pradesh had been completed so far. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced the project in Itanagar on January 31, 2008. The Trans-Arunachal (declared as National Highway 229) highway from Tawang to Mahadevpur will pass through Bomdila, Nechipur, Seppa, Sagalee, Ziro, Daporijo, Along, Pasighat, Roing, Teju, Mahadevpur, Namchik, Changlang, Khonsa and Kanubari. The project components include construction of two-lane feeder roads connecting all district headquarters.

Two Four-Lane Highways Connecting Karimugal & MC Road Planned

Kochi:With work on the longdelayed SmartCity gathering steam, areas east of Kochi, including Kizhakkambalam, Muvattupuzha, Perumbavoor, Kolenchery and Kothamangalam, among others, will get a huge development push. Three four-lane highways have been proposed by the public works department (PWD) from the project site to ensure smooth access to SmartCity. Two of these have been proposed on the eastern side of the project area.

POINGUINIM: The felling of trees for road-widening work at Polem has sparked off yet another controversy, amid contrasting claims by officials of the highways and forest department.

While officials claim that the project consists of road-widening work, locals allege that work is afoot to erect a toll booth plaza for levying entry tax to vehicles from across the border.

Ahmedabad: The widening work on an important stretch of the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway (NH 8-C), which connects the western part of Ahmedabad to the state capital, has finally taken off after a delay of over six months.

The Rs 55-crore project has, however, hit a roadblock with the compound wall and sacred Nishan Sahib of Gobind Dham Gurudwara coming in the way of the expansion plan of the state Roads and Buildings Department.

Administrator Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) Muhammad Hussain Syed said the Rs 570 million grant had been received from Japan Government for construction of Mehran Highway.

Non-planting of saplings along national highways in the State after uprooting several old trees for taking up road widening projects has come to light through a petition filed under the Right to Information Act by tree lovers.

Answering a set of questions from a Salem-based resident, officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have replied that a total of 7,214 trees were uprooted for four-laning project on NH 68 in Salem alone.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday announced a slew of measures for development of infrastructure, including setting up of two new airports and a Rs 23,000-crore package to upgra