The National High-Speed Railway Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) on Friday invited bids for the construction of an underground station at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) for the Mumbai- Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor, an official said.
The NHSRCL is the implementing agency for the bullet train project, under which the train will be run between Ahmedabad and Mumbai on a high-speed rail corridor at a speed of 320 kmph, covering a distance of 508 km and 12 stations. The train is expected to reduce the travel time between the two cities to about three hours from the current six hours.
“Bids invited for design and construction of Mumbai underground station and tunnels for #BulletTrain,” railway minister Ashwini Vaishnav said in a tweet.
An NHSRCL official said that bids have been invited for the construction of an underground station along with “one cut and cover tunnel” at the BKC.
The total cost of the project is Rs 1.08 lakh crore and as per the shareholding pattern, the central government is to pay Rs 10,000 crore to the NHSRCL, while the two states involved – Gujarat and Maharashtra – are to pay Rs 5,000 crore each. The rest is to be paid by Japan through a loan at 0.1 per cent interest.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had on Wednesday assured the Consul General of Japan in Mumbai Fukahori Yasukata of fast-tracking infrastructure projects like the bullet train, funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
A 14-year-old girl sleeping in a roadside shanty was crushed to death after an empty truck overturned on her in Thane city of Maharashtra early on Friday, officials said. The incident took place in the limits of Kapurbawdi police station on the Mumbai-Nashik highway around 6.15 am, they said.
“The victim, Madhu Bhati, a toy seller hailing from Gujarat, was sleeping in a roadside shanty when the speeding truck overturned on her.
The driver of the truck, which was going to Mumbai from Nashik, apparently lost control over the vehicle that led to the accident,” said Avinash Sawant, chief of the Regional Disaster Management Cell (RDMC) of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC).
After being alerted about the mishap, teams of the fire brigade and the RDMC rushed to the spot and pulled out the girl trapped under the truck with the help of a crane, he said.
The girl was immediately taken to the Thane civil hospital, where doctors declared her brought dead, Sawant said, adding that the driver of the truck fled from the spot. Senior inspector Uttam Sonawane of Kapurbawdi police station an offence was registered against the truck driver under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act and a search is on for him.
The alternate aircraft arranged for passengers of the Dubai-Kochi Air India flight that got diverted to Mumbai a day ago due to a loss of cabin pressure landed at the Cochin International Airport here early on Friday morning.
An alternate aircraft AI 1681 BOM-COK from Mumbai landed at 0433 hours today with 180 passengers. The rest of the passengers will arrive on an Air India flight at 0730 hrs.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered a probe into the incident that took place on July 21 when an Air India flight from Dubai to Kochi was diverted to Mumbai due to a loss of cabin pressure after which an alternate aircraft was arranged to carry passengers from Mumbai to Kochi.
A senior DGCA official informed that the captain of Air India Boeing Fleet Aircraft of Flight No. AI- 934 from Dubai – Cochin, reported to IOCC (Integrated Operations Control Centre) regarding pressurization loss in the aircraft. The flight was diverted to Mumbai and it landed safely.
Two senior officers of DAS WR are assigned the task to carry out a preliminary investigation, he added. He added that an inquiry has been ordered.
On Wednesday, in an incident of technical malfunction, the windshield of a Go-Air flight between Delhi and Guwahati cracked mid-air due to bad weather on Wednesday, a Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official said.
The aircraft was diverted to Jaipur and landed safely. Earlier this month, DGCA said that 30 such incidents take place daily, but these occurrences hardly have any safety implications.
“On average, about 30 incidents do take place, including go-around, missed approaches, diversion, medical emergencies, weather, technical and bird hits,” the top DGCA told ANI.
“Most of them have no safety implications. On the contrary, they are a sine qua non of a robust safety management system,” he added. In similar incidents, another two Go First flights were diverted due to engine snags on Tuesday.
The DGCA has said that the matter is being investigated and the aircraft are being grounded. The DGCA added that the flights will take off once they get clearance from the authority.
While the GoAir A320 aircraft VT-WGA flight from Mumbai to Leh was diverted to Delhi due to Engine No.2 EIU (Engine Interface Unit) fault, Go Air A320 aircraft VT-WJG flight G8-6202, from Srinagar to Delhi was diverted to Srinagar due to Engine no. 2 EGT over the limit.
Earlier on July 17, an Air India Express aircraft while operating from Calicut to Dubai was diverted to Muscat after a burning smell was observed from one of the vents in the forward galley of the flight.
Meanwhile, after frequent engineering-related glitches were reported in several airlines, the DGCA conducted several spot checks and advised that all aircraft at base and transit stations shall be released by certifying staff holding a licence with appropriate authorization by their organization, said officials on Monday.
The spot checks carried out by DGCA teams have indicated the improper identification of the cause of a reported defect, increasing trend of minimum equipment list (MEL) releases and non-availability of required certifying staff to cater to multiple scheduled arrivals/ departures in a short interval.
The move comes after several instances were reported in the country where flights were diverted citing safety or functioning issues.
Delhi LG VK Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the Arvind Kejriwal government’s Excise Policy, 2021-22, over alleged violations of rules and procedural lapses, officials said on Friday.
The CBI inquiry was recommended on Delhi Chief Secretary’s report filed earlier this month, showing prima facie violations of GNCTD Act 1991, Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR)-1993, Delhi Excise Act-2009, and Delhi Excise Rules-2010, they said.
Apart from this there were also ”deliberate and gross procedural lapses” to provide post tender ”undue benefits to liquor licensees”, said the officials.
The new Excise policy 2021-22 was implemented on November 17 last year under which retail licenses were given to private bidders for 849 vends across the city divided into 32 zones.
Many liquor stores failed to open for being located in non-confirming areas of the city. Several such vends were sealed by the municipal corporations, they said.
The BJP and Congress had vociferously opposed the policy and lodged complaints with the LG as well as central agencies for a probe into it.
New airline Akasa Air on Friday said it will launch commercial flight operations on August 7 by operating its first service on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route using Boeing 737 Max aircraft.
In a statement, the carrier said it has opened ticket sales on 28 weekly flights it will be operating on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route from August 7, as well as on 28 weekly flights it will operating on the Bengaluru-Kochi route from August 13.
The carrier will launch commercial operations with two 737 Max aircraft. Boeing has delivered one Max plane and the second one’s delivery is scheduled to take place later this month.
Praveen Iyer, Co-founder, and Chief Commercial Officer, of Akasa Air, said, “We kick-start operations with flights between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, with the brand-new Boeing 737 Max aircraft.” “We will adopt a phased approach to support our network expansion plans, progressively connecting more cities, as we add two aircraft to our fleet each month, in our first year,” he added.
The carrier had on July 7 received its air operator certificate (AOC) from aviation regulator DGCA.
With the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) giving its green light to Max planes in August 2021, Akasa Air signed a deal with Boeing on November 26 last year to purchase 72 Max aircraft.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Friday congratulated Droupadi Murmu on her election as the President of India and said his party expects her to uphold the constitutional values.
“We welcome her victory and are happy that a tribal woman has assumed the top post. We supported her candidature. We expect her to uphold and protect the constitutional values,” Raut, who is the party’s chief spokesman, told PTI.
Murmu, the candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), scripted history on Thursday by becoming India’s first tribal president in the one-sided contest, defeating Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.
Murmu, 64, won by an overwhelming margin against Sinha after receiving over 64 per cent valid votes in a day-long counting of ballots of MPs and MLAs, comprising the electoral college, to succeed Ram Nath Kovind to become the country’s 15th president.
In the run-up to the election for the top post held on July 18, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray announced his support for Murmu, days after the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by him in the state collapsed. The Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress were constituents of the MVA dispensation.
The Sena had parted ways with the BJP after the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls following differences over sharing the chief minister’s post, and later joined hands with the NCP and Congress.
Uttar Pradesh has improved its performance by two places, bagging the seventh rank in the India Innovation Index 2021 – a comprehensive tool for the evaluation and development of the country’s innovation ecosystem.
The state has been ranked seventh amongst the major states category as compared to the ninth rank in 2020.
The India Innovation Index 2021 report was released by Niti Aayog in New Delhi on Thursday.
UP scored highest in the business environment, high cluster strength, and a significant share of the manufacturing and service sector as a percentage of gross state domestic product (GSDP), officials said.
The state has emerged in the top five states under the knowledge-output pillar. This high score is an outcome of a rise in startups and new businesses, they said.
Innovation-led entrepreneurship is key to ‘Make in India’ and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ programs and the state was determined to create an innovation-friendly environment to give further impetus to startups, manufacturing, and services, Chief Executive Officer of Invest UP, Abhishek Prakash said.
With a score of 6.18, Uttar Pradesh has scored above the national average of 5.81 in Knowledge Diffusion due to a high share of ICT exports, high-tech exports, and citations, he said.
Knowledge Diffusion indicates the knowledge absorption capacity of the state having two sub pillars– knowledge dissemination, and creative goods and services.
The India Innovation Index, prepared by Niti Aayog and the Institute for Competitiveness, is an assessment framework that ranks states and the union territories on their innovation performance.
The third edition of the index released on Thursday highlighted the scope of innovation analysis in the country by drawing on the framework of the Global Innovation Index.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Thursday ordered airlines not to charge extra for issuing boarding passes at airport counters.
The letter referred to an order dated May 2020 that mention general instructions to be followed by passengers and Specific Operating Guidelines for major stakeholders for recommencement of domestic air travel for passengers with effect from May 25, 2020 inter-alia indicating that passengers have to ensure that they make a web check-in and generate Boarding Pass.
Further, it is also requested to refer to the letter of even reference dated May 9, 2022, advising airlines to encourage, facilitate and guide the air passengers in making timely web check-in and bag tag printing and minimize/avoid penal charges on non-web-check-in travelling passengers.
It has come to the notice of the Ministry of Civil Aviation that airlines are charging an additional amount for issuing boarding passes from the passengers seeking check-in at airport counters.
Such an additional amount is not in accordance with the instructions given in the aforesaid Order or as per extant provisions of Aircraft Rules, 1937.
In view of the above, the airlines are advised not to charge any additional amount for issuing boarding passes at the airport check-in counters, as the same cannot be considered within the ‘tariff’ as provided under Rule 135 of the Aircraft Rules, 1937.
The letter has the approval of the Competent Authority and it has been marked to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation also.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Thursday announced that the restrictions imposed on festivals during the coronavirus pandemic have been lifted and there would no curbs on the upcoming Ganesh Chaturthi, Dahi Handi and other religious events.
There will also be no restrictions on the commemoration of Muharram when processions are taken out, he said.
After the pandemic broke out in March 2020, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, which was then led by Uddhav Thackeray, imposed several restrictions on festivals, including a ban on processions during the Ganeshotsav. There were also curbs on the height of the Lord Ganesh idols installed by sarvajanik (community) mandals and as well the household level.
Due to these factors and the prevalence of infection, the Ganesh festival and other religious events had mostly remained low-key in the last two years.
Speaking to reporters, Shinde said, “All the restrictions on the religious festivals introduced during the pandemic have been lifted. People should be able to welcome such festivals with a positive attitude.” He added that a single-window system would be set up to facilitate the Ganesh mandals across the state in obtaining permissions for pandals and other things. “There will be no registration fees for it,” the chief minister said.
“A committee has been set up for finding a solution for Ganesh idols made of Plaster of Paris (PoP). It will come up with some environment-friendly solutions,” he said.
The 10-day Ganesh festival will begin on August 31 this year.
Man arrested for concealing gold worth Rs 49.27 lakh 11
Customs officials at the Amritsar International Airport have seized gold weighing 933.2 grams worth Rs 49.27 lakh from a passenger who travelled back from Dubai.
According to the information, the person who travelled back to India from Dubai was held at the Amritsar International Airport after officials found around 933.2 grams of gold that he concealed inside his baggage on Wednesday.
The current value of the seized gold is worth Rs 49.27 lakh. Customs officials said, the person was arrested and a case was registered against him under Section 104 of the Customs Act, 1962.
