After getting overwhelming response from the private sector in major rail infrastructure public private partnership (PPP) projects, Indian railways is now eyeing to attract an investment of around R1,000 crore from private sector for building toilets at 600 railway stations under PPP mode.

The much-needed step to provide basic amenity at stations comes in at a time when the national transporter is cash strapped and has no money to complete its major infrastructure projects. Railways, for long, has been struggling to provide clean lavatories at its stations as hygienic toilets have never been a priority for railways due to cash crunch.

Hyderabad: Hyderabad is facing the threat of groundwater degradation beyond recoverable level, warn Indian researchers of a German University.

A team of four researchers from the department of engineering geology and hydrogeology, RWTH Aachen University has taken up studies on the scarcity of water in the mega cities in India. Hyderabad is one of the cities selected for research thanks to its rapid urbanisation and heavy pressure on water resources.

Hyderabad: The city could be heading for a major health crisis if current conditions in the city continue the way they are, say experts.

Such an event could very well happen if the municipal authorities do not pull up their socks to improve sanitation and urgently clean up the city. Already, the incidence of dengue and malaria have doubled this year. While malaria cases crossed the 430 mark in 2012, compared to less than 200 cases in 2011, dengue cases saw an alarming rise from about 150 in 2011 to over 300 this year. Even cholera and jaundice cases have shown an upward trend. Urban development and health experts warn of the danger of uncleared garbage lying on the streets.

In an effort to curb the rapid dieselisation, the Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority (EPCA) has called for a proposal to impose both a one time green tax on new cars and also reintroduce the system of owners paying an annual tax on diesel cars.

The EPCA describes this as “an annual environment compensation charge amounting to 2 per cent of the purchase value of a petrol car and 4 per cent of the purchased value of a diesel car.” The second tax they want levied is an “environment compensation charge of 25 per cent of the sale value of the diesel car to be collected by the dealers at the time of the sale.”

New Delhi: Creation of IT jobs in Bangalore and Hyderabad seems to have a direct impact on the growth of private vehicles in these two cities.

The Secunderabad Canton-ment Board is likely to spare residents within its limits from an immediate drinking water tariff hike.

The elected ward members, led by vice-president B. Narmada, deferred their decision to increase water charges till the dispute with the Water Board is resolved. The elected members also said a decision on the quantum of hike will be taken only after the meeting with the Chief Minister and after the resolution of the dispute.

Ore Team, a steel and steel-making commodities research house that provides industry professional with real-time news and analysis, pricing information and key research notes, will organise a two-day international conference on iron ore mining industry in Hyderabad from December 13.

With all the major iron ore mining regions in the country under scrutiny, there is bound to be a short -supply of raw material for steel-making. As per OreTeam data, the iron ore production in 2012-13 is pegged at around 140 million tonne, which would just be enough for the overall domestic requirement.

The city is looking at a shortage of at least 40 million gallons of drinking water supply during the coming summer.

The Water Board will be forced to reduce the duration of supply even in the core city during the summer as the reservoirs have not received sufficient inflows due to a poor monsoon. This was revealed by Water Board managing director J. Syamala Rao at a media conference on Thursday.

For a city already troubled by noise pollution, the Deepavali night further took the malaise to new levels, especially in residential areas, anti-pollution control boards have found.

The Central Pollution Control Board had instructed the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board to measure noise levels on November 6, when the twin cities were just getting into a festive mood, and November 13, the Deepavali Day.

This Diwali night saw a rise in air pollution levels in some pockets of the Capital while noise levels declined compared with last year, according to an air-noise pollution assessment report released by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on Wednesday.

A senior CPCB official said: “The rise in air pollution can be attributed to adverse meteorological conditions -- decrease in average temperature, low wind speed, and increase in humidity -- in and around Delhi and the fact that people probably burst more smoke-producing crackers.”