$80 Billion Bullet Train Scandal in Japan

A scandal threatens to put the brakes on Japan’s plan to build the world’s fastest train. To surpass the nation’s famous bullet train, the project incorporates magnetic-levitation technology that promises to cut journey times from Tokyo to Osaka by more than half, to just over an hour. The $80 billion project carries the government’s added…

4000 Crores Deal Signed to Develop Two Rail Corridors

Indian Railways subsidiary Ircon International, Chhattisgarh Government, and South-Eastern Coalfields (SECL), have signed an agreement to develop two rail corridors at a cost of about Rs 4,000 crore. The preliminary work on the corridors with a combined length of 4,000 km, will start before the end of this calendar year, said an official statement. It…

38 More Cities to Undergo Cable TV Digitisation

Encouraged by the response it received for the first phase of Digitisation of cable TV homes, the information & broadcasting ministry is now gearing up for the second phase, which would cover 38 cities across 15 states. With the analogue signals in Delhi  and Mumbai  being blocked on October 31 and Kolkata  agreeing to switch…

India Gets Ready to Start Operations at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant

India is set to cross a major hump in its nuclear power programme with the Kudankulam plant expected to begin generating power within a month after it goes critical in the next 10 days, marking an end to prolonged delays due to local protests and anti-nuclear activism. The first unit of the Russian-built nuclear plant…

Flying to Smaller Cities to be Mandatory Soon for Airlines

In an attempt to increase regional connectivity, the civil aviation ministry is working on a proposal to make it mandatory for airlines to deploy small aircraft to smaller cities. The proposals, currently in the works, include making connectivity to smaller cities mandatory under the route dispersal guidelines (RDG) by changing its current allocation norms. “The…

Delhi International Airport Limited gets ISO 20000 Certification

IGI Airport operator, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), has got ISO 20000 certification for eliminating and controlling IT related threats on its IT service management system. With this, Delhi has become the sixth airport in the world after Dubai, Munich, Abu Dhabi, Incheon and Hyderabad to get this certification, a statement from the DIAL said….

5,600km of Roads in Naxal Hit Areas on Drawing Board

After making substantial progress in the first phase of constructing roads in 34 naxal-affected districts in the past two years, the Centre is now planning to build another 5,600 km in these areas. These two-lane roads – estimated to cost the government Rs 9,500 crore in the second phase – would cover more interior stretches…

Now, 6500 Trains Can Be Tracked Real Time

Now, railway passengers can track trains on real-time basis. Railways has launched online application RailRadar, which is an interactive map on Google that can facilitate passengers to track movements of all trains running across the country. The passengers can locate the trains on real-time basis on both internet and their cellphones. RailRadar, developed by a…

Government Planning to Build 10-15 Greenfield Airports

Giving a push to aviation infrastructure development, Government is planning to build 10-15 greenfield airports and modernising 50 others in the non-metro cities over the next few years. “About 50 non-metro airports are being modernised within the next 2 years and overall 10-15 new greenfield airports are being planned,” Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh told…

Coming Soon – Bullet Trains for Tortoise Tracks

Wouldnt it be better if they at least get the tracks in order to run the trains at high speed? Why spend so much money if they want to make the bullet trains crawl on our tracks?  Why waste money?  Another scam in the making? The railways have decided to go in for six bullet…

Surplus Railway Land Alone Can Yield Government 50,000 crores

Kelkar committee warned that the failure to move briskly would expose the country to a crisis worse than what it had endured in 1991.The report suggested that exploitation of governments assets could play a key role. Although most government departments do not have exhaustive asset register,the assessment is that shipping,defence,posts,airport authority and railways would be…

Hike FDI in Telecom Sector to 100% – Parekh panel

A high-level committee, headed by HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, has submitted its interim report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on reforms and suggestions on how to find the funding needed for the infrastructure sector, estimated  at close to $1 trillion or Rs. 1 lakh crores during the current five-year plan for the economy. The Parekh…