by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Corporate Reports, Economy, News, Politics
PM Modi arrives at Aizawl airport in Mizoram
Aizwal : Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday the Centre is committed to put all the state capitals of the northeast on the rail map and is executing 15 new projects in the region.
“We are committed to bring all the state capitals of the northeast region on the rail map. The government of India is executing 15 new rail line projects of 1,385 km length, at a cost of over Rs 47,000 crore,” Modi said during his visit to Mizoram.
“It is said that the lack of connectivity is one of the biggest hurdles in the path of development of the Northeastern region,” Modi noted, adding: “My government wants to do ‘transformation by transportation’ through investment in infrastructure…”
He said the Centre has been proactively following the ‘Act East Policy’. “As a gate-way to South East Asia, Mizoram stands to gain immensely from this. It can emerge as a key transit point for trade with Myanmar and Bangladesh,” said the Prime Minister.
The vision of New India can be realised only if fruits of development reach all, he said.
The Centre plans to focus on around 115 districts which are relatively backward when evaluated on various indicators. This will benefit backward districts of Northeastern states, including Mizoram, said Modi.
“In the spirit of “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas” every Indian, irrespective of caste, gender, religion, class must have equal opportunities to partake in the new prosperity,” he added.
Modi was in Mizoram to inaugurate the 60 MW Tuirial Hydro Electric Power Project (HEPP). He dedicated the project to the people saying it will boost the socio-economic development of the state.
Tuirial Hydropower Project is the first major central government project to be successfully commissioned in Mizoram, Modi said, also adding that besides electricity the reservoir water will also open new avenues for navigation.
“This will provide connectivity to remote villages. The huge reservoir, spread over an area of 45 square km, can also be used for development of fisheries,” Modi said.
The Prime Minister said the project would boost eco-tourism and provide a source of assured drinking water supply.
He said the project was first cleared by the union government of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, way back in 1998 but got delayed.
“The completion of this project is a reflection of our commitment to complete ongoing projects and usher in a new era of development in the Northeastern region,” Modi said.
The Prime Minister also said that during the tenure of Vajpayee, significant work was done for the development of the Northeast.
“We have taken forward this vision and are devoting resources for the progress of the Northeast. My ministerial colleagues are frequently visiting the Northeast,” Modi said.
“There have been over 150 ministerial visits. Our initiative – the Ministry of DoNER at your doorstep has added impetus to the development of the Northeast. It has enabled us to understand the aspirations of the Northeast even better,” he added.
Modi also said that he was delighted to be in Mizoram and this was his first visit as Prime Minister as he had visited the state before also.
“I admire the beauty and friendly nature of the people,” he said.
“The high literacy rate, scenic beauty and availability of large English-speaking population in Mizoram make for a perfect blend to develop the state as a model tourist destination,” said the Prime Minister.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Guwahati-Shillong Road
By Rupesh Dutta,
New Delhi : Even as the Centre aspires to improve connectivity in the northeast under its Act East Policy, the two-laning of a crucial 43-km highway is hanging fire as Meghalaya’s Khasi Autonomous District Council (KHADC) has delayed its nod for acquiring land for the project.
The project, worth almost Rs 500 crore, will, once completed, ease trade and travel to the Indo-Bangladesh border. It has been pending for the last three years.
While the Meghalaya government has permitted the central government-run NHIDCL (National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited) to perform civil works on the stretch from Nongstoin to Wahkaji, this cannot begin till there is a NOC (No Objection Certificate) from the KHADC, a powerful autonomous body led by Meghalaya’s assertive Khasi tribe.
Earlier, on the same issue, an 18-km stretch from Wahkaji to the Mawthabah, a uranium-rich area, was deleted from the main project.
However, the stretch being a spur from Wahkaji, the project will be taken up after the NOC is issued.
According to documents on the project’s status, the work on two-laning the stretch had been awarded at the lowest bid of Rs 350.11 crore of M/s BSCPL Infra Ltd on October 31, 2014.
However, the work was transferred to NHIDCL on July 17, 2015. A number of attempts were made without success to obtain the NOC and so the contract awarded to M/s BSCPL Infra was withdrawn on September 8, 2016.
Sources in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) said that while many letters have been written to the Meghalaya government, there has been no concrete reply on the project, which is part of the government’s Special Accelerated Road Development Programme in North East (SARDP-NE) project.
“Many a times the matter has been taken up with Meghalaya’s Chief Secretary. Land acquisition for the stretch is immediately needed and the local residents have given their consent for it. However, the KHADC was not issuing the NOC, leading to cancellation of agreement (with the contractor),” a source in the ministry told IANS.
The need for the NOC becomes mandatory under the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. It states that in case of acquisition or alienation of any land in the scheduled areas, the prior consent of the concerned Gram Sabha/ Panchayat/Autonomous District Councils …under the fifth schedule of the constitution, shall be obtained in all the cases.
However, the KHADC says it is planning to give the NOC very soon and the delay was caused by some NGOs expressing concern over environmental damage to the uranium-rich Domiasiat area.
“The delay in giving the NOC was due to some NGOs having concern over the Domiasiat area which is rich in Uranium. However, we are planning to finalise the matter during our next meeting,” KHADC Chairman L. Nongsiej told IANS.
The KHADC is ready to cooperate with the state bodies on the road project, Nongsiej added.
Currently, Meghalaya, which shares a 443 km border with Bangladesh, does not have any other road project ready to be executed under the Centre’s monitoring. NHIDCL has meanwhile initiated the process of re-inviting bids for the Nongstoin-Wahkaji section with the reduced length of 43.06 km.
(Rupesh Dutta can be contacted at Rupesh.d@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Economy, Events, News, Politics
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal
New Delhi : Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Tuesday invited potential investors to participate in Advantage Assam, the first ever global investors summit to be held in the Northeast, saying his state can now be termed as the land of potentialities, possibilities and prosperity.
Organised by industry body Ficci along with the state government, Advantage Assam will be held in Guwahati on February 3-4, 2018.
“The business environment we have created in Assam today is only because of the support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Sonowal said while addressing a curtain-raiser conference for the summit here.
“He told us that we should stand up as A for Assam,” he said while inviting investments for Assam.
Sonowal said that it was Modi who gave the name Asthalakshmi collectively for Assam and the other northeastern states.
Stating that “we will have to go hand-in-hand”, the Chief Minister said: “Please come to Assam with an open mind. We are ready to extend full cooperation to you.”
He said that with a revamped economy and geographical proximity to southeast Asian markets, “we are a launchpad for huge business opportunities”.
“We are creating a business friendly environment with visionary reforms and are developing state-of-the-art infrastructure,” Sonowal stated.
“We were earlier termed as a land of trouble and insurgency, land of terrorism. Now, Assam is a land of potentialities, possibilities and prosperity.”
Inviting investors to share their business smartness in Assam, he said that building infrastructure was the government’s responsibility.
“Once the Brahmaputra river was considered the best waterway in the world but we lost that advantage due to sedimentation and siltation,” the Chief Minister said.
“Now the Prime Minister has announced Rs. 400 crore for dredging of the Brahmaputra,” he said.
Stating that Bangladesh and Bhutan have already opened consulates in Guwahati, Sonowal said: “Now we have requested the 10 member countries of the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) to also open their consulates in Guwahati.”
He said that a World Trade Centre is also being developed in Guwahati with the construction of two towers, each 65 storeys tall.
The Chief Minister said that in the last one-and-a-half years that the BJP-led government has been in power in Assam, investments to the tune Rs 6,500 crore have come into the state.
As for the law and order situation in the state, he said that for the first time in its history, the country’s Independence Day has been marked by three-day festivities for two consecutive years.
“We are committed to realise Prime Minister Modi’s vision of the Northeast as the new engine of India’s growth and will offer all support to investors,” Sonowal asserted.
Speaking on the occasion, Assam Industries Minister Chandramohan Patowary said that keeping the government’s new development agenda in mind, Chief Minister Sonowal has created two new government departments – one on skills development and another to work on the Centre’s Act East Policy.
“People will get skilled only when there is a necessity,” Patowary stated.
He also said that the state government’s employment department has started an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) exclusively for differently-abled people.
In his remarks, Assam Chief Secretary V.K. Pipersenia said that it was time people stopped looking at the state as the periphery of the country and saw it as as the centre of India’s links with southeast Asia.
“The state government is keen on improving ease of doing business and has passed the Ease of Doing Business Act for this,” Pipersenia said.
He also referred to six new policy initiatives of the Assam government: Biotech Policy, Handloon and Textile Policy, Industrial and Investment Policy, IT Policy, Start-up Policy and Sugar Policy.
“We have 4,000 hectares of land available for industries,” the Chief Secretary said.
Giving a presentation on investment opportunities in Assam, Ravi Capoor, Additional Chief Secretary (Industries and Commerce) in the state government, said that Assam has been made the platform of the Centre’s Act East Policy.
He said that the southeast Asian nations have a combined population of 80 crore but very few people knew that this huge market can be reached from Assam in just two hours’ flight time.
The upcoming Advantage Assam investors summit, Capoor said, will focus on eight major sectors: pharmaceuticals and medical equipment; plastics and petrochemicals; power; river transport and port townships; IT and IT-enabled services; handloom, textiles and handicrafts; tourism, hospitality and wellness; and agri-horticulture, food processing, organic cultivation and bamboo.
In Tuesday’s event, Chief Minister Sonowal also launched a website for the summit, www.advantageassam.com.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance
By Sujit Chakraborty,
Aizawl : Over two decades after it was conceptualised, the first unit of a 60 MW power plant in Mizoram began generating electricity this week — making it the third power-surplus state in northeastern India after Sikkim and Tripura.
“The first unit (30 MW) of the 60 MW capacity Tuirial hydro-power plant started generation on trial basis from Tuesday (August 29),” North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) General Manager P.K. Bora told IANS.
“The second unit of the project would start generation from either October-end or the first week of November.”
With a population of just 1.1 million, Mizoram’s current demand of electricity is only 110 MW to 115 MW during peak hours and is being met by the state’s few mini power projects and availability of its share of power from regional and central sector projects.
“After the full commissioning of the Tuirial hydro-power project, Mizoram would be a power-surplus state,” an official of Mizoram’s power department said, adding that the additional power is likely to be supplied to the regional or national grid.
Farmers’ protests, agitations, topographical hindrance and administrative hurdles delayed the commissioning of the project, the biggest in Mizoram, which shares a border with Myanmar (510 km) and Bangladesh (318 km).
Government-run NEEPCO, a “Mini Ratna” company under the Union Ministry of Power, commissioned the hydro-power plant utilising the water of the Tuirial river in Kolasib district in northern Mizoram.
“After the project was conceptualised in 1994, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs cleared it on July 7, 1998,” Bora said.
However, soon after project work started, farmers and locals launched a series of agitations against the submerging of their standing crops and farmland under the reservoir.
Bora, who is the project head, said work came to a total halt on June 9, 2004, due to the agitation launched by the “abruptly-formed Tuirial Crop Compensation Claimant Association, claiming compensation for the standing crops in the riverine reserve forest”.
According to the company’s senior engineer, work resumed in 2011 after the Union Power Ministry, NEEPCO and the Mizoram government jointly negotiated with the agitators.
However, the delays and consequent price escalation pushed up the cost of the project, initially pegged at Rs 369 crore, to Rs 1,100 crore.
Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, while addressing an official meeting in Aizawl earlier this week, said that four more mini power plants are expected to be completed during 2018-19 financial year.
He said the Detailed Project Report for 24 MW Tuirini hydro-power plant, to be taken up under the state sector, has been prepared. The project cost would be Rs 465 crore and it is expected to be completed in four-and-a-half years.
“NEEPCO has also been pursuing the statutory clearance of the 210 MW Tuivai hydro power project and construction work is likely to start soon,” the Chief Minister added.
Sikkim is self-sufficient at 95.70 MW while Tripura, whose daily need is 285 MW, is self-reliant in electricity.
Since March last year, Tripura has been supplying 160 MW of power to Bangladesh and is ready to provide an additional 40 MW if the central government permits it to do so.
(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in)
—IANS
