Ahmedabad BRTS

Conceptualised on the model of the hugely successful Transmilenio of Bogota and the BRTS of Curitiba, Brazil, the BRTS in Ahmedabad is the “first full BRTS” being built in India.

An initiative of the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board in collaboration with the AMC and Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority, BRTS was set up under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission as a Special Purpose Vehicle called Ahmedabad Janmarg Ltd (AJL). It is expected to be around 89 km long and would involve an investment of Rs 500 crore.The autonomous body is headed by the Municipal Commissioner of Ahmedabad and has on its board various members of AMC, AUDA, City Traffic Police and the Government of India.

One of the main reasons for the failure of the Delhi BRT was that it did not take the people along with it. We are advertising every other day and offering free rides to passengers during the trial period to ensure that the people of the city understand the concept and go along with us. After all, BRTS is a new concept and people have to be made aware of it for it to be successful,

Unlike the Delhi and Pune BRT, which have received a bad name and are seen as failures, the Ahmedabad BRT is being projected as being shielded from failure by its various stakeholders.

BRTS is a dedicated, closed system in which no other transport will be allowed to ply. In fact, people walking across it will be treated as trespassers and fined. Around 100 ex-Army men have been recruited to patrol the BRTS area. When only BRTS buses ply on the stretch in the middle of the road, adherence to schedules will be possible and buses can arrive promptly, at a frequency of every three to five minute

For ITES functions, Khaizen Engineering has been selected to handle ticketing and customer information management at the bus stations

A tender will soon be floated to get a private partner on board for parking facilities along the BRT stretch for 650 autorickshaws, 3,500 two-wheelers and 250 four-wheelers

An advertising tender and one for housekeeping will also be put out soon, he added. Foot-overbridges with escalators will be built, and plans are on to lease out space on top of the foot-overbridges to coffee shops or jewellery retailers. Trial runs of the buses have been going on for the past month, though they are in no hurry to start operations.

All the best BRTS a public-govt initiative.

Entire India suffering in drought but Gujarat could be an exception

At a time when many parts of the country are worried due to inadequate monsoon rains, Gujarat is looking forward to yet another satisfactory crop this kharif season. This is despite change in rainfall patterns and lack of rains in the northern districts.

According to official sources here, the average rainfall this monsoon season has been about the same as the national average that is 55 per cent of the normal average of 900 mm annual rainfall.

Out of 225 talukas in Gujarat, around 40 in North Gujarat areas of Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Patan and Mehsana districts have received less rainfall this year, between 8 to 10 inches (200 to 250 mm). The rest of the State received “adequate” rainfall, official sources say. Due to this, the reported sowing is more than 104 per cent on an average as of now, most of which was completed during the wet spell in mid-July.

This year, the Government expects to bring 87 lakh hectares under cultivation; sowing has already been completed in 77 lakh hectare and is still continuing.

While cotton has been sown in 23 lakh hectares, groundnut acreage this year is 16.70 lakh hectares. Due to delayed rains, there was some apprehension that cotton production could be affected by about 5-10 per cent.

The reasons behind Gujarat’s optimism stems from the success of its efforts at water management during the last one decade, added by the irrigation and drinking water released in some arid districts from the Sardar Sarovar dam on the River Narmada. During the last 10-odd years, the State was able to construct more than one lakh small and medium ‘check-dams’ to prevent the scarce rainy water going waste. Besides, the drip irrigation system, wherein farmers were able to utilise the available water in an optimum manner, has been a success even in the parched North Gujarat districts.

Production of the fruit and vegetable segment also registered a robust growth of 12.8 per cent between 2001 and 2008, which is more than double of that in the 1990s.

Availability of water from means other than the rains have improved traditional crops as well and reduced the farmer’s dependence on the monsoon. In 2008-09, however, inclement weather and climatic change temporarily halted this growth rate.

For instance, wheat production in Gujarat was reduced from 3.77 million tonnes in 2007-08 to 2.89 million tonnes in2008-09, although sowing area was also reduced, from 1.3 million hectares (2006-07) to 1.2 million hectares as some farmers preferred to sow more cash crops than wheat

Solar projects- Gujarat tops with an proposed investment of $2.4 bn

The Gujarat government has approved 34 solar power projects at an investment of Rs.12,000 crore (Rs.120 billion/$2.4 billion) over the next few years, to rank it the top Indian state for this clean energy.

'The projects will add 716 MW to our state electricity grid. This is 2-3 percent of the power requirement,' said a senior official with the state government-run Gujarat Energy Development Agency (GEDA)

Solar power plants would generate 1,250 million units of eco-friendly energy every year. 'We will thus avoid the use of 875,000 tonnes of coal on an annual basis and 1.25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission.'

The developer and the generation (in MW) from each project is:

Solar Photovoltaic Projects (365)

-AES Solar Energy P. Ltd, US (15)

-Astonfield Solar (Gujarat), US (25)

-Azure Power Ltd. US (15)

-Common Wealth Business Technologies, UK (10)

-Dreisatz GmbH, Germany (25)

-Environmental Systems Pvt. Ltd. Mumbai (5)

-Euro Solar Ltd., Bhachau (5)

-JSW Energy, Mumbai (5)

-KRIBHCO, Surat (5)

-Lanco Solar P. Ltd. Hyderabad (35)

-Mi GmbH, Germany (25)

-Millennium Synergy Ltd., Bangalore (10)

-Moser Baer Ltd. Noida (15)

-PLG Power Ltd., Nashik (40)

-Precious Energy Ltd. (Moser Bear) New Delhi (15)

-Solar Semiconductor P. Ltd. Hyderabad (20)

-Solitaire Energies Ltd, (Moser Bear) New Delhi (15)

-Sunkon Energy P. Ltd. Surat (10)

-Tathith Energies US (5)

-Top Sun Energy Ltd., Gandhinagar (5)

-Torrent Power Ltd., Ahmedabad (25)

-Unity Power Ltd. (Videocon Group), Aurangabad (5)

-Waree Energies Ltd. Surat (20)

-Zeba Solar, Portugal (10)

Solar Thermal Projects (351)

-ACME Telepower Ltd.Gurgaon (46)

-Adani Power Ltd., Ahmedabad (40)

-Cargo Motors, Delhi (25)

-Electrotherm Ltd., Ahmedabad (40)

-Abengoa Ltd., Spain (40)

-IDFC, Delhi (10)

-KG Design Services P. Ltd., Coimbatore (10)

-Sun Borne Energy Technologies Gujarat (50)

-NTPC, New Delhi (50)

-Welspun Urja Ltd. Ahmedabad (40)

Gujarat Hotel breaks world record for Dosa a South Indian Dish

"We have made the world's largest dosa, 32 feet and five inches long, in record time of less than 40 minutes," said CMD of Sankalp chain of restaurants, Kailash Goenka.

The dosa was named after "Quick Gun Muragun," an upcoming movie that highlights the merits of vegetarianism. A team of 16 chefs and eight helpers practiced for the past 10 days to get the correct length.

Dosa is an South Indian Dish but a Restaurant from Ahmedabad,Gujarat broke this record for the second time.

Sankalp restaurant first entered the Guinness Book of Records in March 1997 by making a 25-feet-long dosa.

Night courts- First and the only Indian State to have such facilities

Since November 14, 2006 44 such night courts have been launched in half a dozen districts including Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Rajkot. The experiment was launched in the presence of the then chief justice of India, Y.K. Sabharwal, who said that the model will be replicated across the country. Says P.P. Bhat, former registrar-general of the Gujarat High Court, who played an important role in setting up the framework of evening courts, "The full impact of this experiment will be visible when it gets extended to the entire state. It is set to usher in a new and positive era in the annals of the heavily loaded Indian judiciary."

The biggest advantage of evening courts is that the litigants don't have to take leave from work or, in case of a non-permanent employee or a small businessman, lose a day's earning. "The huge backlog of court cases is also on account of witnesses and litigants themselves remaining absent because of leave problems. And thanks to the backlog, judges spend most of their time making roll calls of petty cases. Now, the litigants do not have to take leave because they can come in the evening." Gujarat's Minister of Law and Justice Ashok Bhatt, who played a pivotal role in the setting up of the courts, says, "This is a great development. Evening courts will not only improve the overall quality of justice but also enable regular courts to devote time to the more important cases."

Asia's first dept for climate change in Gujarat

Gujarat government's seperate department for climate change will act as a bridge between government and society to address the issues related to global warming", Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi said today while announcing the initiative in the state assembly.

"Gujarat is the first state not only in India but also in entire Asia to to set up a dedicated department for climate change. Across the world, only six countries have so far put up a seperate ministries for climate change", he claimed.

Gujarat accounts for nearly 29 per cent of the total carbon credit income in India, Modi said, adding, "The state government further intends to launch 'Green Credit Movement' on the lines of carbon credit. Union government, has given an in-principal approval to this proposal".

Elaborating more on the concept of Green Credit Movement, he explained that any company or group, which sets up its project in Gujarat, will have to protect a part or piece of land having green trees. "Companies should start creating tree banks from now to avail the incentives under Green Credit Movement", he stated in a statement.

As part of the new initiative, a comprehensive policy regarding climate change would be formulated. Gujarat government intends to promote the usage of green technology and investment in the same segment. "A revolving fund for the promotion of research and use of green technology will be set up", Modi said.

Other responsibility of the proposed department also include guidence for increasing carbon credit revenues, prepare various curriculums pertaining to climate change for educational purposes and regulation and financial management of new technologies for controlling emission of green house gases.

The department will also undertake research activity to assess future impact of climate change on 1,600 kms coastline in the state.

PUBLIC GRIEVANCES

If you have any complaints against any govenrment department for any harrasements then now you have a option to lodge a complaint.

The complaint will not require you to run from pillar to posts but the process is very simple. You have to just go to the website http://pgportal.gov.in/ Go to the section Lodge your complaint and select the respective dept or ministry under which the complaint falls. Then write a short complaint with proper facts and figures and your name and address. Your complaint will be lodged. You can also see the complaint status with the help of the complaint number and also the password which you decide to have.

So all those people who always wanted to lodge a complaint but did not know about it this is the option for you.

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