Tweet: Coal goal: At this time last year power plants were on a crisis-mode of just a few days stock of coal. Now they have inventory of 20 days.
Coal stocks reach new high: According to the Central Electricity Authority, combined stocks of thermal coal at 100 power plants reached a new record of 29.8 million metric tonnes. This is more than the previous ten year record high of 23.33 mt reached in August 2013.
Tweet: Maha Gov informs Regulator that it is happy to get return of 8% on its power assets instead of mandated 16%. Makes power cheaper by R1/unit.
Power games: Affordable electricity is a key factor in preventing flight of industries from Maharashtra to neighbouring states. The CM is pushing for lower power tariff to realise his “Make in Maharashtra” initiative a success.
Tweet: DIPP to release ranking of states on ‘Ease of Doing Business.’ Political fallout of this “competitive federalism” will be most interesting!
DIPP to bring out state competitiveness report: The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion’s initiative to do a ranking of states is bound to spur a race among frontline states to get on top of the rankings and that will certainly help ease of doing business.
Tweet: Fast-tracker Gadkari: “May last yr, road construction was 2 km/day. Today it is 12 km/day. Target is to take it to 30km/day in 2 years.”
Road construction on the fast track: The government is considering innovative funding plans to raise R3 lakh crore for road projects and double road construction targets from the current rate. All these are expected to improve order books and liquidity for private sector construction companies.
Tweet: Smart Villages too: States like Uttarakhand, MP, AP & Kerala are looking to develop Smart Villages by incubating crafts, IT, Tourism etc.
Villages to get smart, too: Smart Villages are to be developed with an investment of R6,000 crore, says rural development minister Birender Singh. The project is aimed at giving a boost to employment in rural areas and stopping migration to urban centres.
Tweet: It would be a good idea to allow investors to buy partially completed road projects too, instead of the current ‘2 years after completion.’
Exit option for road project developers: The recent policy change allows existing developers to exit 100% from completed road projects instead of the earlier stipulation of retaining 26%. There is no point in restricting the flexibility to completed road projects only.
Tweet: Don’t need the 23% growth in air traffic statistic for April to tell you of busy busy aviation. Just shuffle at serpentine security queues.
Aviation traffic touches the sky: Year-on-year passenger traffic grew by 23.3% in April. This is the highest since September 2014 when traffic spiked by 27.8%.
Tweet: Railway passenger coaches in makeover mode: NID of Ahmedabad to take a shot at redesigning toilets, upper berth ladders, dustbins, etc.
Railways to get a makeover, courtesy NID: The National Institute of Design will redesign coach interiors and provide a makeover to railway stations under a new MoU between the institute and the Railways. A budget of R10 crore has been allocated for the project which will be monitored by a committee of four senior railway executives.
Tweet: Roads Min mulling removal of tolls on passenger cars ~ make up 50% of traffic but 14% of toll collections. Workable in high cargo stretches.
Rejigging toll collections: The ministry has already identified 71 public-funded toll roads and 64 of these have been shut down. Of the total revenue collection of R11,400 crore in 2013, only R1,600 crore came from private vehicles.
—Vinayak Chatterjee is Chairman of Feedback Infra
His Twitter handle: @Infra_VinayakCh
A weekly selection of the author’s tweets—with a brief backgrounder—in the infra space, by Adite Banerjie
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