Infrastructure News & Discussion

bart · Post by **bart** » 22 May 2008 02:01

[quote="Kakkaji"][quote="Sunoor Singh"][quote]On being told that he was speeding, the man burst into a hearty laughter. â€œHigh speed, are you kidding me? I am from the United States. Over there, we drive at 120 mile per hour. Your 150 km per hour is nothing compared to that,â€

SBajwa · Post by **SBajwa** » 22 May 2008 02:09

I have done 120 miles per hour many times on Interstate 79 and 90 travelling between Toronto and Pittsburgh as recent as three weeks ago., but always less than 3 minutes. You do need a good car, empty straight stretch for few miles and good brakes to do 120 MPH.

Any speed that is over 20% than the limit (here in pa) i.e. 70 mph limit means that if you are driving above 84mph gives you automatic cancellation of driving license if got caught (not to mention fines and increased insurance cost).

Sunoor Singh · Post by **Sunoor Singh** » 22 May 2008 02:20

Because I started it, therefore it is my responsibility to end it otherwise we will go off on a huge tangent.

I've got the answer to my question. Thanks everyone.

ranganathan · Post by **ranganathan** » 22 May 2008 02:27

SBajwa wrote:I have done 120 miles per hour many times on Interstate 79 and 90 travelling between Toronto and Pittsburgh as recent as three weeks ago., but always less than 3 minutes. You do need a good car, empty straight stretch for few miles and good brakes to do 120 MPH.

Any speed that is over 20% than the limit (here in pa) i.e. 70 mph limit means that if you are driving above 84mph gives you automatic cancellation of driving license if got caught (not to mention fines and increased insurance cost).

NOt true, I have been caught doing 82 on 65 mile and only got a ticket that was canceled after traffic school. You loose your license if you are caught doing 100 or more.

Abhijeet · Post by **Abhijeet** » 22 May 2008 02:28

Eye candy from SSC. The Bandra Worli sea link.

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 22 May 2008 19:43

RIL trains sight on 50% stake in Pen-Rewas railway link.

Reliance Industries (RIL) is picking up 50% stake in Rewas port connectivity project of Indian Railways. The company would invest Rs 700 crore in the 25-km railway link between Pen station (40 km from Mumbai) and Rewas port.

The connectivity project is planned as an important freight link for RILâ€™s 35,000-acre Navi Mumbai SEZ. This will be one of the first rail links to pass through 8 km of backwaters in the Arabian Sea. Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL) is expected to clear the project on Friday.

â€œThe JV for the port connectivity project would be signed between RVNL and RIL,â€

ASPuar · Post by **ASPuar** » 25 May 2008 13:29

ranganathan wrote:
SBajwa wrote:I have done 120 miles per hour many times on Interstate 79 and 90 travelling between Toronto and Pittsburgh as recent as three weeks ago., but always less than 3 minutes. You do need a good car, empty straight stretch for few miles and good brakes to do 120 MPH.

Any speed that is over 20% than the limit (here in pa) i.e. 70 mph limit means that if you are driving above 84mph gives you automatic cancellation of driving license if got caught (not to mention fines and increased insurance cost).
NOt true, I have been caught doing 82 on 65 mile and only got a ticket that was canceled after traffic school. You loose your license if you are caught doing 100 or more.

Differs frm state to state. In AZ and TX, if youre doing over a 100, you mandatorily spend a couple of nights in the cooler.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 25 May 2008 13:30

same in vermont. I know a american who enjoyed the hospitality for 1 night
until wife bailed him out.

UPrabhu · Post by **UPrabhu** » 25 May 2008 13:34

ranganathan wrote:
SBajwa wrote:I have done 120 miles per hour many times on Interstate 79 and 90 travelling between Toronto and Pittsburgh as recent as three weeks ago., but always less than 3 minutes. You do need a good car, empty straight stretch for few miles and good brakes to do 120 MPH.

Any speed that is over 20% than the limit (here in pa) i.e. 70 mph limit means that if you are driving above 84mph gives you automatic cancellation of driving license if got caught (not to mention fines and increased insurance cost).
NOt true, I have been caught doing 82 on 65 mile and only got a ticket that was canceled after traffic school. You loose your license if you are caught doing 100 or more.

I have done 135 MPH on my 600 c.c. suzuki motorcycle ... and survived...

but on average ppl do 70-75 MPH, and some go to 85-90

ChandraS · Post by **ChandraS** » 25 May 2008 19:44

ASPuar wrote:
Differs frm state to state. In AZ and TX, if youre doing over a 100, you mandatorily spend a couple of nights in the cooler.

Second that. My friend was clocked at 110+ in TX. The cop read him the riot act till my friend had wet and soiled his pants. He let him off with a ticket for just below 100 since my friend was driving back to town to 'defend his graduation thesis'

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 25 May 2008 22:17

ASPuar wrote: Differs frm state to state. In AZ and TX, if youre doing over a 100, you mandatorily spend a couple of nights in the cooler.

In CA also, you spend a night in the cooler. At the very minimum, you get a 2 point violation for going over 100 mph + another 2 points for reckless driving generally.
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/dl/vioptct.htm#twocvc
Since CA considers 4 or more point violations in a 12 month period as grounds to suspend your license, that's going to happen as well + the authorities may classify it as a felony offense rather than a misdemeanor, which means it'll go on your record and inhibit you from certain freedoms (such as buying a weapon in the future). This is why cops may sometimes take pity on you and write in something like 90 instead of 100 on the ticket, so that you don't get your license taken away.

// Happened to a friend of mine. He's damned lucky to only spend the night in the chokey and get his license suspended and not get dinged for a felony for more -- the guy's an idiot and endangered people by participating in a street race in the middle of san francisco.

On the other hand, certain states have no speed limits in the daytime (Nebraska for one) and the law only states that you should drive safely as the conditions permit (i.e.) don't try gunning it in the dark or in snow conditions.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 25 May 2008 22:28

could someone from CA tell us which areas the illegal fast n furious street
races take place and whether the cops are able to catch the participants ?
do rich kids really spend $$ souping up their cars like in the movies?

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 25 May 2008 22:41

Singha wrote:could someone from CA tell us which areas the illegal fast n furious street
races take place and whether the cops are able to catch the participants ?
do rich kids really spend $$ souping up their cars like in the movies?

In the case of my friend, he was actually following the Gumball 3000 rally in 2003 that started in San Francisco. He wasn't in the rally, but decided to go photograph it and follow it as it started (he likes to follow A-list celebrity crowds). As he put it, cop was really chasing a Ferrari, but the Ferrari driver put the pedal to the metal and left the cop in his wake. So the cop arrested my friend who was driving a BMW M3 instead and another chap who he said was an American of desi heritage (my friend is white/asian mix) who was driving another BMW. They were arrested on charges of street racing and my friend had to be bailed out the next day.

My friend has souped up his BMW, but I dunno if it has better performance now -- I attribute all his ricing to his Asian heritage

. FWIW, he has been stopped numerous times thanks to all his mods (mainly his euro-style license plates). On the other hand, I've never been stopped even once and I had a fire-engine red BMW myself. My BMW hasn't had a single modification (well, aside from replacing the stock stereo) though I did consider once putting a big wing on it, just to piss my friend off

. Maybe it is because I just drive safe.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 25 May 2008 22:54

intriguing...first time I read of this gumball rally concept...doped up celebs, wild parties every night, luxury hotels, uber-cars...woo hoo.
thanks for the gyan.

sanjaychoudhry · Post by **sanjaychoudhry** » 26 May 2008 23:36

BJP promises infra boom in Karnataka

Infrastructure-strapped Karnataka is expected to see a heavy dose of BJP largesse following its strong victory in the state, according to senior party functionaries, with greater focus on capital city Bangalore.

According to Jagdish Shettigar, chairman of BJP's economic cell and former member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, infrastructure, especially road building, will be a priority.

"We have frequently stressed that the level of infrastructure required for Bangalore as the country's IT capital was yet to be developed and that we are committed to it," he said.

It is now also certain that work on the controversial 111-km Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) connecting Bnagalore and Mysore will be accelerated. "We have always supported NICE," said a BJP leader.

The project had fallen foul of Deve Gowda, former prime minister and chief of the Janata Dal (S), the BJP's former ruling partner in the state, over the question of surplus land acquisition. The BJP had said that it wanted surplus land acquired for the project to be returned to farmers and alleged that Gowda wanted an auction.

Power is the other area of focus, Shettigar said. A programme similar to the Gujarat government's Jyotigram project to provide rural areas with 24 hours of power has been proposed in campaign speeches."The party has already promised a separate rural grid for those areas and free power for irrigation pump sets up to 10 HP," he said.

For urban areas, the plan is to double power production to 10,000 Mw in the next five years. Given the heavy financing requirements, sources said the BJP will encourage public-private partnerships.

Meanwhile, chief minister designate B S Yeddyurappa has promised that the BJP's economic manifesto will be evident in Karnataka's next Budget.

If that is the case, farmers, weavers and even fishermen look forward to agricultural credit at 3 per cent, a revolving fund of Rs 500 crore for support prices on agricultural produce and Rs 2 per litre subsidy to milk producers.

Two categories of Below Poverty Line (BPL) families will be created in the state, with extremely poor households being seen as those with an annual income of less than Rs 30,000 and poor households as those having an annual income between Rs 30,000 and Rs 50,000.

In regional terms, north Karnataka may be a beneficiary of some major irrigation projects. The region has always been punished for its loyalties to the BJP by the Deve Gowda family regime.

Unlike the well-irrigated and wealthy sugarcane-growing south, where Deve Gowda wields his influence, northern Karnataka has always been arid and dusty.

]Link

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 26 May 2008 23:45

ASPuar wrote:
ranganathan wrote: NOt true, I have been caught doing 82 on 65 mile and only got a ticket that was canceled after traffic school. You loose your license if you are caught doing 100 or more.
Differs frm state to state. In AZ and TX, if youre doing over a 100, you mandatorily spend a couple of nights in the cooler.

I have done the coast to coast driving and you get lot of opportunity for 120+. But you have to know the stretch

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 27 May 2008 00:10

sanjaychoudhry wrote:
BJP promises infra boom in Karnataka

Meanwhile, chief minister designate B S Yeddyurappa has promised that the BJP's economic manifesto will be evident in Karnataka's next Budget.
Link

I met him few years ago and wished him all the best in the future.

rachel · Post by **rachel** » 27 May 2008 00:51

[quote="Vipul"]Low Speed please this is a Expressway.

Even as the traffic regulatory authorities have been diligently trying to show some semblance of maintaining traffic on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, motorists seem to be running on their own whims and fancies.

A half-day visit to the Expressway on Sunday revealed the various moods of motorists caught by the cops for violation of traffic rules. In most cases, they managed to match the copsâ€™ verbal volley of legal jargon. Though the day was marked with many incidents of sassy offenders giving cops the lip, two in particular stood out, glibly.

Around noon, the officials stopped a high-end black Mercedes that was going above 120 km per hour, well above the permissible 80 kmph limit. The moment officials confronted the carâ€™s uniformed driver, a well-dressed middle-aged woman coolly asked the officer what the amount she had to pay as fine was. The cops told her that the penalty was Rs500. She took out two crisp notes of Rs500 denomination and handed them over to the officer. She said, â€˜One note for this offence, the second is for the next one which I will be committing after you let me go.â€

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 27 May 2008 02:12

auto bahn example must be cited... in USA its still 65-80 miles per hour depending on state, city or speed way traffic and density.

if its a point to point dedicated express way, I would suggest that no limits set at all. cops can get 10% of the express way as pre-paid speeding ticket. satisfy both cops and users at once..

we are not smart thinking!.. thats the reason.

Nayak · Post by **Nayak** » 27 May 2008 07:07

Down here in singland it is 80 Klicks an hour as the speedlimit, but some of these taxi-drivers are crazy.

I had one guy driving like a stunt driver early morning from airport.

I got bounced around the rear-seat all the while.

He was doing 100 + on the roads. One thing for sure, singland has the smoothest roads, screams out for street racing, but the cops are pretty strict around here.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 27 May 2008 08:38

Location: Ringing the doorbell of the playboy mansion

your Pee1 visa to pakistan expired ? and they deported you to
hefnerville ?

Nayak · Post by **Nayak** » 27 May 2008 09:17

There is no fun in Baki-lund with muskrat doffing his uniform. Also travailing goat-trails and dodging predator-djinns gets to be tiresome after a while.

Abhisham · Post by **Abhisham** » 27 May 2008 10:34

Nayak wrote:Down here in singland it is 80 Klicks an hour as the speedlimit, but some of these taxi-drivers are crazy.

I had one guy driving like a stunt driver early morning from airport.

I got bounced around the rear-seat all the while.

He was doing 100 + on the roads. One thing for sure, singland has the smoothest roads, screams out for street racing, but the cops are pretty strict around here.

tell me about it I am riding a big CC bike, its grossly unfair to limit the speed to 90 klicks, half the time i need to check my speedometer or look around for overhead bridges and/or filter lane corners to make sure there is no Traffice Police when I do speed up.

Nayak · Post by **Nayak** » 27 May 2008 10:45

Which brand do you own btw ?

I see Honda with the REPSOL stickers quite popular here.

Sometimes I keep getting tempted on owning one of these monsters.

I even visited the local honda shop to drool over these babies.

jkarthik · Post by **jkarthik** » 27 May 2008 22:25

[quote="rachel"][quote="Vipul"]Low Speed please this is a Expressway.

Even as the bewildered cops were busy discussing the womanâ€™s attitude, another group of officers stopped a Skoda Octavia, which apparently was going at 150 kmph. A tall, young man came out of the silver car and wanted to know the reason for him being stopped. On being told that he was speeding, the man burst into a hearty laughter. â€œHigh speed, are you kidding me? I am from the United States. Over there, we drive at 120 mile per hour. Your 150 km per hour is nothing compared to that,â€

bart · Post by **bart** » 27 May 2008 22:47

jkarthik,

I would seperate that into 2 different issues.

Yes, 80 is lame as a speed limit on the expressway, no questions there. That needs to be upped to 120 at least but there are proper ways and channels to do it.

Arrogant 'NRI' giving lip to the traffic policemen (who is just doing his job) and claiming to be superior and all-knowing because 'he is from America', or for that matter the lady who thinks that just because she can afford a Merc she is entitled to put public safety at risk by racing it without a speed limit, NOT ON.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 27 May 2008 23:01

bart, we have to agree on the rider as well. express ways are not for bullocks, and jay walkers. that shows, cops are not doing their job by fining those who cross the express ways with their cattles and herds.

OTOH, cops should be happy if the rich wrecks an expensive car by speed alone.. as long as it does not endanger the cattles and men behind those cattles.

villagers should have village roads.. that should not be linked with express ways at all.. except for those ramps.

COps should be paid 10% of the toll as maintainance fees, and as pre-paid speeding ticket charges.

bart · Post by **bart** » 28 May 2008 00:10

The road in question here is the Pune-Mumbai Expressway, which IIRC is completely fenced off and not open to 2 wheelers, let alone cattle and bullock carts. It also has no intersections, and has the on-ramps that you talk about.

OTOH most of the new roads including the GQ roads are not fenced off, and villagers and cattle are free to come on to the road - on such roads you dont need traffic police to enforce the speed limit, if you know what i mean

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 28 May 2008 00:14

I do.. and its precisely out of bounds in discussion since those are high ways and not expressways or speedways, that needs to be fenced. fencing means all the more reason to increase the speed limits, or perhaps, depending on the endagangering infrastructure issues, we could let it off from the speeding limitations, per what i suggested as 10% advanced pre-paid speeding expenses paid to cops from the toll.

SBajwa · Post by **SBajwa** » 28 May 2008 02:09

The biggest problem in India as I have noticed is the speed variation between different vehicles. i.e. some would be doing 40 KMph (Tata Trucks) others around 60 KMPH (motor bikes) and cars upto 110+.

Another danger is that everbody drives with their beam lights staring you int he eyest!! and thousands of Tata Trucks with no reflectors at their rear bumpers!! Not to talk about Bail Gaadi and Ghora Gaadi.

Here in US!! I can easily put my car on 74 Miles per hour cruise (in 65 miles limit or 79 cruise in 70 mph limit as in West virginia) and take my foot off the accelerator for long time., not in India. I am not sure whether Indian cars come with a cruise control (too much braking and acceleration).

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 29 May 2008 12:58

TOI photo today was awesome...now get that harbour link asap and
expand expand to RIL SEZ.

Mumbaiâ€™s sea bridge joined

Mumbai, May 28: A 5.7-km bridge over the Arabian Sea connecting the northern suburb of Bandra with Worli in central Mumbai achieved a milestone on Wednesday with the linking of the approach spans from both sides. â€œThe physical structure of the 5.7-km bridge is ready,â€

amit · Post by **amit** » 29 May 2008 14:00

Here's a picture of the bridge on Sify.
However, dunno if its a computer generated image or the real one.

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 29 May 2008 19:56

Rediff Coverage of the Sea Link: One of India's greatest engineering marvels?

Abhisham · Post by **Abhisham** » 30 May 2008 09:24

Nayak wrote:Which brand do you own btw ?

I see Honda with the REPSOL stickers quite popular here.

Sometimes I keep getting tempted on owning one of these monsters.

I even visited the local honda shop to drool over these babies.

Mine is V-Twin Yamaha MT-01. By the way I have sent you an email (indojunkie), pass me your contact details.

Nayak · Post by **Nayak** » 30 May 2008 09:33

Abhisham wrote:
Mine is V-Twin Yamaha MT-01. By the way I have sent you an email (indojunkie), pass me your contact details.

Dude send me at my new domain, nayakuddin at gmail.com .

The old mail got compromised and I am not using it anymore.

ashish raval · Post by **ashish raval** » 01 Jun 2008 18:00

Some development projects underway in Gujarat

First 24x7 electricity, now 24x7 water

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Citi ... 089463.cms

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 02 Jun 2008 00:41

Work starts on Eastern Freeway.

Work on one of the road projects that Mumbai is looking forward to, the 22-km Eastern Freeway, has started. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) early this week started laying the foundation for the road that is likely to throw open the hitherto-closed eastern waterfront for development besides giving Mumbai's central and eastern suburbs a quicker access to the island city.

The Eastern Freeway, from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Museum (formerly Prince of Wales) to the Eastern Express Higway at Anik-Wadala, will be a high-speed corridor that will enable motorists to traverse the entire distance in 20 minutes. Motorists now travelling northeastward from Fort take the D N Road-J J Flyover-Dr B R Ambedkar Road route to reach Sion, which takes almost an hour. So the Eastern Freeway will save nearly 40 minutes and also take the pressure off the existing roads, officials feel.

The freeway will be ready by December 2010 and is estimated to cost Rs 531 crore. It is being funded under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission; the Centre will bear 35 per cent of the cost, the state 15 per cent and the MMRDA the remaining 50 per cent.

MMRDA chief engineer S Nandgirikar said the agency had obtained a no-objection certificate from the Mumbai Port Trust to carry out the work during monsoon. But the initial work, laying of the pile foundation, involves digging, trenching and boring and will affect traffic on the narrow MbPT road. "They put certain conditions so that port traffic was not disrupted. But the road will be an elevated structure from CST to Anik-Wadala Link Road (a distance of nearly 8.9 kilometres)," Nandgirikar said. The elevated road will affect around 60 structures, belonging to the MbPT and spread over a length of 2 kilometres, near Carnac Bunder and they will have to be demolished. "Most of these buildings were leased out and the MbPT recently carried out a survey and found that most of the leases had expired. So there should not be a problem in demolishing them," he said. The MMRDA has also had to raise the height of the elevated structure from 5.5 metres to 6.5 metres so that it does not affect the port railway network.

"The existing MbPT road will be improved but will not be open to civilian traffic. This will move on the elevated road," Nandgirikar said.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 02 Jun 2008 13:24

4 laning of NH48 Neelamangala-Hassan has gathered momentum. tree cutting of 100s of old banyan trees and others is done , soil is being laid for the
new two lanes.

but this has created some safety hazards and we saw some deadly accidents
had occured. the rash driving on the existing undivided road is also there.

once the Hassan-Sakleshpur-Mangalore is 4 laned, it will be interesting to
explore new places like "Bisle Ghat" and a tipu sultan era fort in sakleshpur.

http://hassan.nic.in/htmls/bisl_big.htm

ankurv · Post by **ankurv** » 02 Jun 2008 14:06

UPrabhu wrote:
ranganathan wrote: NOt true, I have been caught doing 82 on 65 mile and only got a ticket that was canceled after traffic school. You loose your license if you are caught doing 100 or more.
I have done 135 MPH on my 600 c.c. suzuki motorcycle ... and survived...

but on average ppl do 70-75 MPH, and some go to 85-90

My experience is that the cops in the US normally treat leisure motorcycle riders with kid gloves as compared to the cars - I was clocked at 105mph in a 65 mph zone on the AZ-NM border - the nice cop chit chatted about the bike (was on a 1300cc suzuki hayabusa), gave me a warning ticket for doing 75mph in a 65mph zone and told me to take it easy. Good thing he didn't catch me doing 130+ mph a few miles back

The max I did on that trip was about 153 mph in New Mexico (where I saw two patrol vehicles in all over 3 days of riding) - with jet straight roads and excellent visibility, that state is a racers paradise.

BhairavP · Post by **BhairavP** » 03 Jun 2008 18:50

Some photos of the Mumbai skyline from my building terrace. Camera is an S2IS.
(apologies for the overexposure on some shots..)

1) Antilia - Mukeshbhai's new house:

(this one includes One Altamount Road, a new Raheja building. 20 cr. per flat.)