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Govt plans
to open up farm sector
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Minister for Environment
and Forests visits Australia
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Honourable
Minister for Environment and Forests, Mr. A. Raja, visited Australia
from 9-12 January leading the Indian delegation for the inaugural
meeting of Asia-Pacific Partnership on Climate and Clean Development.
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The
Indian delegation included officials as well as industry representatives.
The Partnership was formed in July 2005 and comprises of India,
Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and USA.
The meeting adopted a Charter and a Work Plan for the Partnership.
A joint communiqué was also issued after the meeting.
Eight task Forces were established in the areas of (i) cleaner
fossil energy, (ii) renewable energy and distributed generation,
(iii) power generation and transmission, (iv) steel, (v) aluminium,
(vi) cement, (vii) coal mining and (viii) buildings and appliances.
Hon’ble Minister had meetings with Hon’ble Minister
for Industry, Tourism and Resources of Australia Mr. Ian Macfarlane,
and Hon’ble Minister for Environment and Water of the State
of Victoria Mr. John Thawaite, during the visit. |
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Republic
Day
The flag hoisting ceremony at the High Commission on the
occasion of the Republic Day was attended by a large number
of Indian community members. High Commissioner Mr. P.P.
Shukla read out Hon’ble President’s message
to the audience. He also presented the CNS medal to Lt.
Commander K.G.N. Menon, a former Indian Navy officer.
Functions were also organized at the Consulate General
of India Sydney and other cities in Australia. |
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Delhi, Mumbai Privatisation bids finalised
The Minister of State for Civil Aviation
Minister Praful Patel has announced that the Government has chosen
two private consortia for modernising and restructuring the Delhi
and Mumbai airports. The contracts were awarded to GMR-Fraport consortium
and GVK-South African Airports. The former has won the bid for the
Delhi airport; the GVK-South African Airports combine has bagged the
Mumbai airport project, the Minister said.
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The investment for the Delhi airport is estimated to be around
Rs. 2,800 crore and for Mumbai, it could be around Rs. 2,400
crore. The investment of Rs. 5,200 crore is likely to be for
the first phase of modernisation, to be completed by 2010.
Giving details of the final bids for the Delhi airport, Mr.
Patel said GMR-Fraport's bid earmarked 43.64 per cent of revenue
share to the AAI. Reliance-ASA's bid was the highest at 45.99
per cent. D.S. Constructions-Munich Airport had earmarked
41.15 per cent revenue share to the AAI and Sterlite 31.04
per cent.
GMR-Fraport would match the highest bid and give a revenue
share of 45.99 per cent to the AAI. In the final evaluation
process, GMR-Fraport had emerged the sole qualifying bidder
subject to its matching the highest bid. It was given the
option of matching the top bidder as it was the sole technically
qualified bidder among the five aspirants for the Delhi airport
and
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the six for the
Mumbai airport. On the concerns of the AAI employees, Mr. Patel
said both the consortia had given a written commitment to absorb
60 per cent of the AAI employees as against the minimum requirement
of 40 per cent. "Not a single employee of the AAI would
remain jobless. If someone is left out by the two companies,
he would be employed by the AAI itself as it would need workforce
to manage other airports," Mr. Patel said. For the first
three years, all AAI employees would remain on deputation to
the two joint venture companies.
Expressing satisfaction over the revenue share offered by the
two successful bidders, the Minister said that the funds accrued
on account of this would help modernisation of other airports,
contrary to the belief that privatisation of the Delhi and Mumbai
airports would affect the financial viability of AAI. This would
help the government to concentrate on development of 35 other
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metro and other
airports and help in development of the civil aviation sector,
he said. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will remain in
charge of several key elements of the basic airport infrastructure,
even after the two consortiums take over the airports.
The five components of an airport are city-side facilities (which
include land outside the terminal towards the city), air-side
facilities (which include parking bays and other facilities
on the runway side of the terminal), the terminal building,
the airspace and the runway.
Of these elements, the new airport operators will be in charge
of city-side development and the terminal building. The rest
will remain under AAI control. The new consortia are expected
to increase revenues for the airports by increasing the percentage
of non-aeronautical revenues. |
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