Infrastructure News & Discussion

[Singha]

do you know what kind of property Ratan tata and Anil ambani lives in ?

[BhairavP]

do you know what kind of property Ratan tata and Anil ambani lives in ?

Anilbhai lives in Seawind, an 8-floor building in Cuffe Parade. It is where Mukeshbhai is shifting out of.

Ratan Tata lives in Bakhtawar building, Colaba.. v.close to Seawind. A duplex apartment.

[Singha]

oh so they still occupy same building. I have seen it , has a spiral car ramp
upto 3rd floor doesnt it ? in those days 1995 such car ramps were a novelty
because multi storeyed parking was quite rare in India.

[amit]

Here's an artist's rendition of Mukesh Bhai's new house and more details about it.

One interesting trivia, it will have 600 staff working there. And these 600 will serve 6 people. The bossman, his wife, three children and the bossman's mother, who's going to move in here.

[vina]

do you know what kind of property Ratan tata and Anil ambani lives in ?

Anilbhai lives in Seawind, an 8-floor building in Cuffe Parade. It is where Mukeshbhai is shifting out of.

Ratan Tata lives in Bakhtawar building, Colaba.. v.close to Seawind. A duplex apartment.

Is there a helicopter shuttle service between Colaba/Nariman point kind of areas to the airport ? . How do these fat cats get to the airport?. I am sure they fly every other day. It is a hellish drive through some incredibly dense traffic. Somehow I don't envisage them taking the Mumbai suburban trains, squished like sardines and without air conditioning.

[amit]

Was just Googling around for fun about Mukesh Bhai's new pad.

Came across this one-year old report in Guardian. Nothing exceptional about the report but this quote caught my eye:

Praful Bidwai, a newspaper columnist, said the divide between rich and poor was obscene. "Mr Ambani is building an edifice to his own ego," he said. "It will not go down well with the public. There is growing anger about such absurd spending."

Trust the pure fool to know what's going down well (or up for the matter) with the public. And trust a UK newspaper to feret out Pure fool from whatever hole he usually stays in for the quote!

[sanjaychoudhry]

Trust the pure fool to know what's going down well (or up for the matter) with the public. And trust a UK newspaper to feret out Pure fool from whatever hole he usually stays in for the quote!

It is a deliberate strategy of Gora journalists to quote only the Indian leftist activists as "experts" on any situation in the country. This is because these people can be relied upon to give anti-India and anti-BJP quotes and also pass sarcastic remarks about India's growth and achievements. Actually, the way these stories are done by Western editors, they seem to be an edifice to their own bloated White egos.

[amit]

Actually, the way these stories are done by Western editors, they seem to be an edifice to their own bloated White egos.

Sanjay,

It used to be ego. Now it not ego its jealosy pure and simple, especially in the Brit case.

Who for example recently created a great brouhaha for buying the most expensive house in London? Why another dark skinned guy who lives in the UK and is it's richest person, yet continues to hold the Indian passport as a sort of status symbol (and maybe also as a insuarnce policy). Note that Mittal is prominently mentioned in the Guardian article.

So next time you read such comments - Pure fool - not withstanding, it's not about condescending commentary, it's real fear and jealosy. And off course our Pure fools will be happy to oblige with a general bark.

JMT.

[BhairavP]

oh so they still occupy same building. I have seen it , has a spiral car ramp
upto 3rd floor doesnt it ? in those days 1995 such car ramps were a novelty
because multi storeyed parking was quite rare in India.

Yeah.. that's the one. What's your email ID? Have some stuff to share which I would rather not blurt out on a public forum.

[Singha]

robust_bear at yahoo dot com is my alter-ego. be glad to hear any 'andar ki baat'

Mukeshbhai is creating steady jobs for 600 people on his plot and
indirectly perhaps another 1500 people as service providers to his little
hut and stimulating the construction industry with 2-3 yrs of steady work for
1000s of workers.

whats not to like?

[Vipul]

State govt to drop sealink for view of Shivaji statue.

The Vilasrao Deshmukh government is all set to drop nearly four kilometres of sealink between Malabar Hills and Nariman Point which is part of the ambitious Rs4,500-crore Western Freeway sealink project. The reason apparently is to give an unobstructed view of the Chhatrapati Shivaji statue which is to be installed in the sea, off Marine Drive.

“We have appointed EES Consultants to give us other engineering options to the sea-link,â€

[Rohit_K]

BhairavP, Can you please email me at rohitk105 at gmail dot com? There's something I need to talk to you about.

[BhairavP]

BhairavP, Can you please email me at rohitk105 at gmail dot com? There's something I need to talk to you about.

Mailed. Singhaji.. will mail in detail tomorrow.

[Vasu]

In a few years, Mumbai and Maharashtra will start feeling the pinch of all this utter nonsense their politicians have been partaking in without a hint of protests from the citizens.

They drive away the hard working immigrants, sacrifice the city's transport needs for political gain, protect the slums around etc etc. It won't be long before businesses truly start migrating to other states. Gujarat is already building a multi-billion dollar finance and technology city.

Chinese trains for first route of Metro Rail

The contract, worth Rs 604 crore, was won after the firm outbid two other consortia — Alstom Transport SA, France, with Alstom Projects India Ltd. And Rotem Company, Korea, with Bharat Earth Movers Ltd.

They're in love with Chinese goods, aren't they?

[bart]

It is ironic that while the Chinese themselves buy German, French and Japanese trains, MAH govt wants to buy Chinese trains.

[Raj]

State likely to reject Anil bid for Nhava Link

MUMBAI: The Reliance Energy Limited-led consortium's bid to construct the Mumbai TransHarbour Link (MTHL) between Sewree and Nhava may be scrapped by the cabinet subcommittee on infrastructure headed by chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Thursday.

According to a source in the state secretariat, the subcommittee may ask the nodal agency, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), to complete the project on its own with financial assistance from multinational banks.

For this purpose, the government is likely to ask the MSRDC to form a separate special purpose vehicle, like the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) for the metro railway project in the city.

The promise made by the Anil Ambani-led consortium, that it would build the 22km sea link and recover its costs in just under 10 years, had raised eyebrows in the government after experts and engineers termed it 'unrealistic'.

[bala]

Another mindless/spineless order to Tibet Stomping CCCP Goons Inc. for what ? When did they become the PWD for India?

Chinese company gets Himachal road contract

The Himachal Government has given out a mega contract for road construction worth Rs.1365.435 crore to a Chinese construction company. More than 400 km of State highways and main district roads are to be upgraded and periodic maintenance of 2,000 km of road done under this project.

[Raj Malhotra]

Another mindless/spineless order to Tibet Stomping CCCP Goons Inc. for what ? When did they become the PWD for India?

Chinese company gets Himachal road contract

The Himachal Government has given out a mega contract for road construction worth Rs.1365.435 crore to a Chinese construction company. More than 400 km of State highways and main district roads are to be upgraded and periodic maintenance of 2,000 km of road done under this project.

I dont know how to say it politely so here is THE ****** HAVE LOST THEIR MIND GIVING CONTRACT IN BORDER STATE FOR ROADS TO CHINESE

[negi]

Well to be honest as long as the roads get completed in time and the state gets value for the spent money I would say good for people of HP .

Although skeptics would say a lot of money might have been passed under the table for this deal and I wont disagree , but still it will be far less than the pilferage caused by the PWD and CO along with shoddy work.

[Rahul M]

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=207601
Kolkata Project Update I - project news from Kolkata.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=470551
Suncity's Kolkata trips - May / Nov / Dec 2007

[Vipul]

It is ironic that while the Chinese themselves buy German, French and Japanese trains, MAH govt wants to buy Chinese trains.

It was Reliance Infra and not Maharashtra Govt which gave the contract.
In order to maximize its returns the ADAG group is buying Chinese Products. First the GSM equipment order and now these Metro Trains.

[rachel]

Yeah and I HATE the fact that Mumbai Metro has picked Chinese company for rail cars. DMRC has built fine railcars under license from Koreans ..why couldnt they design the Mumbai Metro to use those cars?

I was hoping that just about every metro rail system in India would end up buying and using the cars made for Delhi Metro.

I wouldnt feel safe riding in any Chinese metro railcar, knowing the shoddy quality of the Chinese products! I know Chinese stuff is cheap, but quality-wise....???

[paramu]

The way to control Reliance from awarding all contracts to Chinese is to put heavy penalties to bidder when disasters occur due to shoddy construction, in the contract.

I doubt if any of their equipments in Jamnagar plant were supplied by Chinese. Since they own the plant they would have awarded that to Europeans/Japanese/Koreans.

[Raju]

Jamnagar ~ Mukesh ~ RIL (Reliance Industries Ltd)
Mumbai
Metro ~ Anil ~ ADAG (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group)

[vsudhir]

Raju,

You may have a point there. The Anil chap just feels a tad shady to me. Mukeshbhai is a much more traditional, desi business type. Anil hobnobs with the likes of amar singh (so does Amitabh), goes to RS on a SP ticket, and awards contracts to chini companies. His Rel power was the biggest flop in IPO history, IIRC.

Bottomline: Mukeshbhai inspires much more confidence than the anil character.

[Vipul]

ADAG pulls out of Mumbai sea-link project.

The consortium led by Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company (ADAG) RELINFRA has decided not to seek an extension of the bid for the Rs 6,000-crore, 22-km sea link project between Sewri and Nhava-Sheva citing the state government's "indecisiveness" over awarding the contract.

A consortium of RELINFRA and Hyundai had won the bid for the project in February but the state government ordered a review on grounds that the concession period — or the period for which the developer collects toll to recover its costs — was unrealistically low.

RELIINFRA's withdrawal effectively leaves the field free for the only other bidder — the consortium of Mukesh Ambani-promoted SeaKing Infrastructure Ltd (SKIL) and IL&FS. The RELINFRA consortium had quoted a concession period of nine years and 11 months against the SKIL consortium's 75 years.

RELINFRA submitted the bid documents in December. Under the conditions of the bidding process, a bid document is valid for six months after this. This period lapses on 13 June but RELINFRA has decided not to apply for an extension, as the state government had requested. "It is not correct to say we are pulling out of the project because it is not as though the project is being offered to us and we are rejecting it," a senior RELINFRA official told Business Standard. "In this case, we are not sure whether we will be getting the project and, if we are getting it, when," he explained.
Meanwhile, the state cabinet's committee on infrastructure, which is chaired by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, postponed the decision on the project by a week.

The controversy began last month when the state government asked the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), which is a nodal agency for the project, to get both bids evaluated from a consultant owing to widely differing concession period.Last week, London-based Dar Consultants submitted a report saying both bids are worth considering.

At today's meeting of the cabinet committee MSRDC forwarded four proposals for consideration, which included awarding the project to RELINFRA. The other three options were a re-tender, rebids by RELINFRA and SeaKing or MSDRC going it alone.
Deshmukh also reportedly told the MSRDC to examine the credibility and feasibility of the bids submitted by the two consortiums led by the Ambani brothers and come up with concrete suggestions.
"The project is of the enormous importance to the city and that's why we are being cautious," said minister for public works Anil Deshmukh, justifying the delaying of the decision.

[Katare]

IMHO, commercial contracts won/awarded be private sector should have only one basis and that is commercial interests. We run a nation based on rules and legislations not what individuals think/feel. Suspecting qualities of Chinese trains based on your experience of Chinese light-bulbs and shoes is not creditable. You simply don't have the data to access that and Ambani is betting Rs600corer on his trust of quality of goods that he is buying. It is his money and if he makes bad choices he'll suffer most.

Chinese competition is very important in making sure that our infrastructure and industrial capacity is built at cheapest cost possible. I am pretty sure next time Indian bidders would come back with better-cost models.

[bart]

Suspecting qualities of Chinese trains based on your experience of Chinese light-bulbs and shoes is not creditable.

Katare,

You might want to check the experience the Pakis had with trains imported from their 'our relationship is higher than the mountains' mentors.

[vsudhir]

Chinese competition is very important in making sure that our infrastructure and industrial capacity is built at cheapest cost possible. I am pretty sure next time Indian bidders would come back with better-cost models.

Agreed.

Though to what extent Chini competition can be considered 'fair' is another issue altogether. Also, Chini firms insist on bringing in Chini labor for the projects they execute (happened in one of ADAG's pipeline projects, IIRC).

[bala]

More Chinese taking up jobs in infrastructure sector here

“While Chinese presence in India in other sectors is not unknown, their entry as workers into the construction industry signals a serious shortage in the domestic market.”

Hyderabad, June 15 If you see a group of Chinese nationals laying a telecom cable or working on road-widening, don’t be surprised.

Of late, the construction boom in India is luring skilled and semi-skilled construction workers from China.

They are already working in some pockets of the country including Andhra Pradesh and Bihar and there could be more in north and eastern India, according to the information available with the National Academy of Construction (NAC) here.

“We were quite surprised when we came to know that Chinese workers are coming to India. There are also requests that some of them should be trained at our academy,” Mr V. Prabhu, Additional Director General, NAC, told Business Line here.

The Chinese workers are being brought to India by overseas labour contractors in teams and about 300 of them are working in some parts of Andhra Pradesh on cable-laying for a private telecom company.

“They are brought to India on the promise of providing food and shelter for a fixed period of time and wages do not differ much from their Indian counterparts (Rs 150-200 a day),” Mr Prabhu said.

“The mismatch between the demand and supply of the construction workers in different parts of the country and the seasonal unemployment in China could be behind the presence of Chinese workers in India,” he added.

What brings the Chinese workers to India is their experience in infrastructure works, according to an official of Reliance Industries Ltd which currently employs over 1,000 Chinese in its 1,440-km East West Gas Pipeline (from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh to Baruch in Gujarat) project.

“We have over 1,000 Chinese working at different levels from manual labour to entry level technical supervisors. They have experience in grounding mega infrastructure projects,” the RIL official said.

While Chinese presence in India in other sectors is not unknown, their entry as workers into the construction industry signals a serious shortage in the domestic market, said Mr S. Chandrasekhar, Director, International Infrastructure Consultants Pvt Ltd, Chennai.

As most of the Indian manual workers display unwillingness to migrate to other parts from their place, training institutes should be set up across the country to train and create awareness among them, he said.

[rachel]

As with many items involving India vs China, this latest tidbit makes me ashamed. China has a higher per capita income than India, yet Chinese workers are willing to travel to Africa and India to do back-breaking manual labor... and by contrast, Indian workers (who cannot possibly have the excuse of being rich like European or some Arab sheikhdom counter-parts ) hesitate to work on projects in their own country?

A nation with as much poverty as India .. using basic unskilled labor from China?

It really seems that the Chinese are more enterprising and ambitious than Indian workers. Why???

[Katare]

If you read what bala posted but didn't highlight you would know the problem...

their entry as workers into the construction industry signals a serious shortage in the domestic market, said Mr S. Chandrasekhar, Director, International Infrastructure Consultants Pvt Ltd, Chennai.

The mismatch between the demand and supply of the construction workers in different parts of the country and the seasonal unemployment in China could be behind the presence of Chinese workers in India,”

They have experience in grounding mega infrastructure projects,” the RIL official said

[Vipul]

Road corp to build Maharashtra harbour link.

[vijyeta]

As with many items involving India vs China, this latest tidbit makes me ashamed. China has a higher per capita income than India, yet Chinese workers are willing to travel to Africa and India to do back-breaking manual labor... and by contrast, Indian workers (who cannot possibly have the excuse of being rich like European or some Arab sheikhdom counter-parts ) hesitate to work on projects in their own country?

A nation with as much poverty as India .. using basic unskilled labor from China?

It really seems that the Chinese are more enterprising and ambitious than Indian workers. Why???

The reason is sociological - ever since Indian society created social classes based on categories of work ( menial, religious etc.), physical labour has been looked down upon. Only the economically deprived sections will do it - as they have no other option. This bias is deep-rooted and will not go away easily.

It is but natural that people from a country like China - that enforces a social system which advocates a class-free society - will be less biased against manual labour.

[sanjaychoudhry]

Compared to the humble farmer, BJP's Yeddyurappa in Karnataka has hit the ground running as far as hard infrastructure is concerned.

A month in office, development is all Yeddyurappa talks about

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Indi ... 194902.cms

Having completed barely a month in office, BJP's Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa already sounds uncannily like his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi, stressing on nothing other than development as his high priority agenda for the state.

If he begins a conversation with the media it will be about his developmental projects and his targets. He waxed eloquent how he snatched some time off his three-day visit here to look at the Gurgaon SEZ and rattled off the number of new airports for which he had already laid foundation in Hassan, Shimoga and Gulbarga within 15 days of taking office.

While Yeddyurappa dismissed any parallel with Modi saying he is following the "Atal Bihari Vajpayee model", he agreed that "Gujarat has done well" and also revealed that his industry minister was in Gujarat on Thursday, with his team, to draw from the state's experience.

Asserting that his target is to take Karnataka from the 7th position on the economic map to the top, the CM said that his target is to turn Bangalore into an international city benchmarked on all prescribed standards.

Confirming that he will soon take a decision in keeping with the court's directives to start work on the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC), Yeddyurappa said talks are on with civil aviation minister Praful Patel.

Expansion of airports soon

Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Thursday unveiled ambitious plans to develop airports across the state, in order to make the state an ideal investment and tourism destination. Mr Yeddyurappa said his ambition is to raise the ranking of Karnataka from the 7th position to the 1st ranking state in the country.

Asserting that civil aviation would receive top-most priority, Mr Yeddyurappa said that he had laid the foundation stones for Gulbarga and Shimoga Airports. For the proposed Hassan Airport, he said, bids have been invited.

As far as the Bijapur Airport was concerned, while the Indian Air Force planes operate from there, efforts are being made to operate even civilian planes from the Bijapur Airport.

The Karnataka government has offered land free of cost to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and is even prepared to sanction Rs 3 crores for the construction of a new airport terminal. In Hubli, Belgaum and Mangalore, where airports already exist, the Karnataka government plans to expand these airports.

http://howrah.org/india_news/17873.html

Karnataka to reboot, targets Rs 1,20,000-cr IT revenues by 2011

Top software industry leaders have presented a blueprint to the BJP government in Karnataka for the revitalisation of the information technology and biotech industries in the state to more than double revenue from the sectors to Rs 1,20,000 crore by 2011.

One of the key components of the blueprint is the creation of four new hubs of 500 acres each around Bangalore exclusively for companies in the IT, BT and health sectors, with industry and government jointly buying land from farmers at market rates.

Access to land in and around Bangalore for expansion, along with the city’s well-documented infrastructure crisis, have been long-standing concerns for IT companies. Applications for land allotment by top names such as Infosys and Wipro have been hanging fire even as they step up investments at locations outside Karnataka.

Karnataka’s leadership in the IT sector appears to be under serious threat, with software exports from the state growing by just 11% during 2007-08, compared to Andhra Pradesh’s 41%, Tamil Nadu 37% and the national average of 29%.

Bangalore’s technology sector employs some 6 lakh people, nearly a tenth of the city’s total population.
The revitalisation blueprint, a copy of which is with ET, envisages an autonomous empowered authority to give all permissions and approvals for what it calls the ‘IT-BT-Health cities.’

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Inf ... 182431.cms

[sampat]

Sabeer Bhatia, Parsvnath plan Rs 50,000-crore knowledge city

Elaborating on the project, Jain said: "The knowledge city will be divided in four districts: IT, University, Airport and Biotech."

Nordic countries have these kind of clustered cities that fuels innovation. In these cities universities are sort of mega uni's in which different departments collaborate together to create unique product. The whole process is first facilitated by organizing a course one on the line of new product development or venture creation. Where students from different departments marketing/sales/industrial design/IT..etc come together to create something or take their ideas forward. They refine their ideas in these courses and later on university incubator steps in and help them to take the idea to market.

[Vasu]

Sampat, I wish our nation's policies and priorities went along with this infrastructure push as well. Innovation has been eliminated from our society, our schools and from most of our institutes of higher learning.

There is very little innovation coming out from the IIT's, nobody wants to go into research and the high-profile diploma holders from the IIM's start working with the big corporations/ibanks around the developed world.

Even the tier III universities of the US are better in most benchmarks than our superstars. Maybe some Indian private money without any government interference will help.

Admins, sorry for posting on the infra board. very touchy subject, no?

[archan]

Well intellectual development is sort of like 'soft infrastructure'. How will the IITs get the best talent for research when they advertise an Assistant Prof. job with a salary of 12 thousand a month? Granted it comes with a house and gym etc. but its not like the housing is in any way premium and not many would be attracted by the whole package. And I heard that the IITs get lakhs every year just from their alumni, in addition to the govt. funding.

[Vasu]

absolutely. The ******** sitting in New Delhi will not understand that though. We can argue the reasons all we want, but the basic fact remains the same. In fact, the IIT's are in the same position as the IIMs - totally capable of funding their own growth.

I can see a good growth in corporate funded R&D, but India needs that triad of private enterprise, academic research and government support. They all seem to be going in different directions!

[Rishirishi]

As with many items involving India vs China, this latest tidbit makes me ashamed. China has a higher per capita income than India, yet Chinese workers are willing to travel to Africa and India to do back-breaking manual labor... and by contrast, Indian workers (who cannot possibly have the excuse of being rich like European or some Arab sheikhdom counter-parts ) hesitate to work on projects in their own country?

A nation with as much poverty as India .. using basic unskilled labor from China?

It really seems that the Chinese are more enterprising and ambitious than Indian workers. Why???

One of the greatest hurdles for Indian consturction industry is the lack of trained semi skilled labour. (Carpenters, masons, etc). There is a total lack of training infrastructure for these skilles. In Germany it takes up to 5 years to become a craftsman. 2-3 years of training then apprentership. That is the reason for the lack of quality construction.

By importing labour from China, the builders are hoping to improve the construction quality.

No one really knows what the real situation in the Chinease country side is like. In India people demand at least 3-4 thousand rupees per month. I cant see that they can actually survive on anything less. The Chinease must be really desperate to work cheaper then Bangladeshis and Indians.