To expedite the construction of viaducts for Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail corridor, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw flagged off an indigenously designed and manufactured equipment. The span launching equipment Straddle Carrier and Girder Transporter of 1,100 MT capacity has been indigenously designed and manufactured by Larsen & Toubro (L&T) at Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu, officials said.

Vaishnaw said, “This will expedite construction of high speed railway (HSR), as is the proven technology in metro and similar projects. Work has already begun on 325 km (in Gujarat) out of 508 km corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. “This project will also improve the skill set in various rail construction technologies. Japanese counterparts will provide training to National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited employees and also to contractors. More than 6,000 workers are already working at various construction sites for the project, thus creating employment opportunities for the local youth,” he said.

Vaishnaw further stated that the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project is expected to create more than 90,000 jobs in this area, including 51,000 jobs for technicians, skilled and unskilled workers.

An elevated cross taxiway that will help cut taxiing time and save fuel at Delhi’s IGI airport will be ready by December 2022, an airport operator said. Describing it as India’s first ever elevated taxiway; the Delhi International Airport Limited said 60% work on the facility has been completed. Once the new corridor is commissioned, the taxiing distance for aircrafts at Delhi airport will go down from the current 9 km to 2 km as the facility will allow planes to go straight towards Terminal 1 from the runway or vice-versa instead of going around runway 11/29.

“This will translate into a reduction of nearly 1,114 kg of CO2 emissions for each aircraft taxiing along this route. Annually, the ECT is estimated to reduce emission of approximately 55,000 tonnes of CO2,” added DIAL.

ICRA revised its stand from ‘stable’ to ‘positive’ for the domestic steel sector, as all major listed steel companies have delivered healthy financial performance during the April-June 2021 quarter. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, ICRA had assigned a ‘negative’ outlook on the sector expecting a record fall of 20% in domestic steel demand during the financial year ended March 2021.

ICRA issued a statement saying “It has revised the steel sector’s outlook to ‘positive’ from ‘stable’ following all large listed steel companies reporting their best-ever quarterly performance in Q1 (April-June period) of financial year 2022, and the earnings outlook remaining healthy for the remaining months of FY2022.”

Jayanta Roy, senior Vice-President and group head (corporate sector ratings) of ICRA, said, “After a seven per cent contraction in steel demand in last year following the pandemic, we expect domestic consumption to grow at around 12% in the current fiscal.”

Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, while speaking after inaugurating the nearly 1 km Najafgarh-Dhansa Bus Stand corridor via a video-conference said, “nearly 740 km or so of metro lines are operational in various cities in India and the network span is steadily scheduled to rise to about 900 km by 2022.”

Puri applauded the Delhi Metro for its various accomplishments despite the COVID-19 pandemic. “With trailblazer transportation system like the metro, the national capital has the potential to become a world-class city like London and New York,” he added.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy announced that the total installed renewable energy capacity in India, excluding large hydropower, has crossed the milestone of 100 GW or 100,000 MW, which accounts for about 26% of the total capacity.

Ajay Mathur, Director of the International Solar Alliance said, “You see India has gone from 10 GW to 100 GW in just 15 years since 2005. It highlights the success achieved by simultaneously strengthening the availability of both equity and credit of human and organizational capacity in the solar, financial and financial sector. To continually change business models in the light of policy areas, and advances in solar technologies, investments and markets.”

Climate Trends Director Aarti Khosla said, “This will not only reduce emissions but will also bring cost savings and cleaner air. At a time when we are shining the world over for the spectacular achievement in renewable sector, we should focus on efficiency and emission reduction from coal, and make the need for thermal sector transformation to bring overall benefits to India’s power sector.”

Vibhuti Garg, an energy economist at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), said, “The feat of 100 GW of renewable energy is a testimony to India’s desire to adopt sustainable energy choices. However, the road ahead needs further acceleration of these targets to help India decarbonise its energy sector. This can be achieved through advancement in technology and finance across the value chain and also providing a stable and conducive policy environment.”

BHEL issued an official statement that it has successfully demonstrated a facility to create methanol from high ash Indian coal. “With four years of hard work BHEL successfully demonstrated a facility to create 0.25 TPD methanol from high ash Indian coal using a 1.2 TPD Fluidized bed gasifier.
The methanol purity of the crude methanol produced is between 98 and 99.5% the statement said.

NITI Aayog member V. K. Saraswat said, “This endeavor led to the formation of in-house design expertise in BHEL for designing greater capacity coal gasification facilities, which will provide necessary impetus to our Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat.’ This in-house capability will assist India’s Coal Gasification Mission and Coal to Hydrogen Production for Hydrogen Mission.”

Direct supply of solar energy to Indian Railways will enable two billion passengers to travel on solar powered trains and help save almost seven millions tonnes of carbon a year, according to a study. The study conducted by NGO Climate Trends and UK-based green tech start-up Riding Sunbeams said “direct supply of solar energy to Indian Railway lines – without the need to connect via the grid – will power at least one in four trains on the national network on competitive terms.” 

Report co-author and Riding Sunbeams Founder and Director of innovation Leo Murray said, “Right now India is leading the world on two vital climate frontiers – rail electrification and solar power deployment. Our analysis shows that connecting these two keystone low-carbon technologies together in Indian Railways can drive both India’s economic recovery from the Covid pandemic and its efforts to transition off fossil fuels to tackle the climate crisis.”

In a boost to investment in Maharashtra during the pandemic,the state government’s Industry Department signed 2 MoUs under the Magnetic Maharashtra 2.0 initiative with JSW, worth `35,500 crore in the renewable energy sector.

As per the MoUs, the company plans to invest `35,500 crore in the state by setting up a hydro-based power project of 1,500 MW power generation in villages like Jammde, Kalbhonde and Kothale near Igatpuri in Nashik district, and wind power projects of 5,000 MW power generation across 1,870 hectares in Kolhapur, Solapur, Satara and Osmanabad. The project, which will take 18 months to start, will supply cheap and green renewable power round-the-clock and help Maharashtra decrease its reliance on non-renewable energy.

Industries Minister Subhash Desai said, “This huge investment inflow in the state will amount to a considerable increase in renewable energy sources. While generating employment for more than 10,000 people, these projects will also bring socio-economic development by promoting eco-tourism, skill development and the service sector.”

“Maharashtra has consistently ensured strong performance across multiple investment parameters, even during and post-lockdown, under Magnetic Maharashtra 2.0, the state has managed to sign MoUs worth `1,65,439 crore,” Desai added.

A strategically important road connecting Leh to the Pangong Lake, was inaugurated In Ladakh by MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, who said that the stretch passing through the Kela Pass at 18,600 ft will be world’s highest motorable way. “The road, constructed by the 58 Engineer Regiment of the Indian Army, will reduce 41 km of travel from Leh (Zingral to Tangtse) to the picturesque Pangong Lake crossing the Kela Pass”, the Lok Sabha member said.

“The road, which was inaugurated today, will be the world’s highest motorable road for the general public at a height of 18,600 ft. Up till now, the Khardungla Pass was the world’s highest motorable road for the general public at a height of 18,380 ft,” Namgyal said. “Tourists will be able to see the world’s highest motorable road, rare medicinal plants, participate in snow sport activities, see nomadic livestock, lakes and other attractions,” Namgyal added.

The Ladakh administration and the Border Roads Organisation signed an MoU for upgradation and improvement of road network in Ladakh, officials issued a statement. Calling the MoU a ‘historic’ move, they said the Union territory (UT) administration also assigned seven projects to the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) considering their expertise in hilly areas to construct tunnels and roads.

“This initiative will ensure the overall development of Ladakh in the long run. It will further enrich the relationship and coordination between BRO and UT Ladakh,” a statement was released. Commissioner Secretary, PW(R&B), Ajeet Kumar Sahu, said the BRO has agreed to upgrade the roads on fast track mode for which funding would be provided by the UT administration.