Dharwad Utsav to be annual affair

Dharwad Utsav to be annual affair
Business Standard Reporter / Chennai

(photo source:dharwadutsav.com)
Dharwad November 24, 2006

Egged on by the tremendous success of Dharwad Utsav and the response from the cultural circles and people at large, the Dharwad district administration has decided to make Dharwad Utsav a regular annual feature.

Dharwad Deputy Commissioner M S Srikar, who spearheaded the Dharwad Utsav-2006, said a good beginning had been made in the Suvarna Karnataka year and from next year onwards the festival will be on a still larger scale on the lines of Mysore Dasara, Bangalore Habba and Hampi Utsav.

For the funds, he said sponsorship from the corporate sector and the government will be sought. The three-day Dharwad Utsav-2006 was held on November 17, 18 and 19 was a grand success.

“The aim was to create a brand image and it has been proved that we have the capacity to organise the event in a grand manner,” said Srikar.

The state government had sanctioned Rs 15 lakh for the three-day Utsav being held after seven long years. The festival offered a veritable treat to the people with a series of events to showcase the spirit of Dharwad.

Actor Naseeruddin Shah hogged the limelight with his performance in his play 'Ismat Apa Ke Naam' based on the life of the Urdu short story writer Ismat Chughtai.

The events were held simultaneously at 13 venues in Dharwad and Hubli. Dance, drama, music, painting, art exhibition, folk, seminars, poetry meet, mimicry and processions added colour and fervour to the festival.

It proved to be a people's festival with a large number of people thronging the venues on all the three days.

Leading litterateurs, dancers, musicians, painters and artistes participated in the festival. The twin cities wore a festive look with buildings and monuments being illuminated.

An exhibition of musical instruments and photographs at the residence of Hindustani exponent Gangubai Hanagal in Deshpande Nagar of Hubli was a big hit.

The festival, besides providing a feast to the connoisseurs also provided a platform for talented youngsters to prove their mettle.

The Karnatak College grounds provided a perfect venue for the events in the backdrop of the imposing monumental main building, which was illuminated.

Airport project may be delayed further

Airport project may be delayed further
TIMES NEWS NETWORK - M L Kapur

(photo source: AAI)
23 Nov, 2006 2357hrs IST

HUBLI: The Hubli airport expansion project has taken a new turn with the state government directing the district administration to submit two fresh proposals envisaging it as a national and international facility.

This may further delay the expansion of the airport as the state government has all along been pushing to upgrade it as a night landing compliant allweather national airport capable of handling big aircraft like Airbus A-320.

As per the revised master plan for expansion of the airport prepared by Airports Authority of India (AAI) in September, 446 acres of additional land is required to upgrade it as a national airport.

At present, it can take only up to 50-seater aircraft. Now, the district administration has been asked to submit two proposals to the infrastructure development department — one for 446 acres and another for 650 acres of additional land to develop it as national or international airport depending on the final decision.

This emerged at a high-level meeting convened in Bangalore on Wednesday by infrastructure development minister B Sriramulu.

Revenue and district incharge minister Jagadish Shettar, Dharwad deputy commissioner M S Shrikar and AAI officials attended.

It was felt that once 446 acres of land is acquired and the airport developed to handle bigger aircraft, there will be a problem to acquire additional 204 acres land later on if the government wants to upgrade it as an international airport.

The deputy commissioner has been asked to submit the proposals to the government within a week. He was also asked to work out details for land acquisition in consultations with the 100-odd families affected by the project.

Shrikar said in fact AAI had submitted both the plans in September itself. However, he clarified that in both the cases the number of houses affected was the same as the additional land for international airport proposal was agricultural land towards the bypass.

Meanwhile, though night landing facilities for 50-seater aircraft have been provided at the airport, so far no airline has come forward to start night services from Hubli to Bangalore or Mumbai.

Recently, Air Deccan extended its Mumbai-Belgaum service up to Hubli, which will fly nonstop to Mumbai on its return trip.

But it still remains to be seen whether there is enough traffic to sustain the new service. Kingfisher Airlines also plans to start one service in the morning from Bangalore to Hubli and back.

Another service will be from Bangalore to Delhi, which will stop at Hubli on the return trip in the evening to take Bangalore-bound passengers.

Dharwad LCV plant on Tata Motors’ roadmap

Dharwad LCV plant on Tata Motors’ roadmap

Economic Times BANGALORE - Gabriel Vaz

BANGALORE:

LEADING automobile manufacturer, Tata Motors, is planning to set up a Rs 1,500-crore plant for bus and light commercial vehicle manufacturing plant at its existing unit in Dharwad.

The company has already submitted a proposal envisaging an investment of nearly Rs 450 crore for bus building and chassis preparation. Another project for manufacture and assembly of LCVs at an additional investment of over Rs 600 crore has also been mooted, according to Karnataka’s large and medium industries minister Mr Katta Subramanya Naidu.

The total investment envisaged by Tata Motors at its Dharwad plant, Mr Naidu told ET, would be in the region of Rs 1,500 crore with roughly Rs 200 to 300 crore coming from the company’s vendors.

About 30,000 buses and LCVs are expected to roll out from the new units, which are also likely to provide direct employment to 20,000 people with ancillary units coming up in the vicinity contributing another 10,000 indirect employment opportunities, Mr Naidu said.

Though the Tata Group’s Telco Construction Equipment (Telcon), which has been operating in the twin cities of Hubli-Dharwad for almost 10 years now, had about 600 acres of land, it had sought an additional 300 acres of land for the new projects. The additional land is also proposed to be utilised for setting up vendor parks.
Both the industries and finance department had given in-principle clearance to Tata Motors to go ahead with the project, the minister said pointing out that the company had sought specific concessions in land acquisition and conversion of the VAT amount repayable over a 30-year period at 0.1% interest per annum and the supply of water at concessional rates in view of the location of the project in the backward region.

Another major concession demanded by the Tata Motors was sanction of additional soft loan amount of about Rs 100 crore repayable over a 30-year period towards the enlarged scope of the project to bring the fiscal incentives at par with other states.

However, Karnataka’s deputy chief minister and finance minister B S Yediyurappa, who had met the company’s top executives along with Mr Naidu, is understood to have agreed to extend the benefit of stamp duty exemption for land acquisition besides providing the land at concessional rates in view of the large employment potential and development of the Hubli-Dharwad region. He has also agreed to extend entry tax and special entry tax for new investments waiver for the first five years as the same has been incorporated in the new industrial policy for the period 2006-11.

The industries minister has made out a strong case for allowing states like Karnataka with large pockets of backward and arid zones in Hyderabad-Karnataka and Mumbai-Karnataka regions to extend the benefits of waiver of income tax and excise duty for a period of five years to attract investment as is being done in the case of states like Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh.

In addition to the new industrial policy, Karnataka will be launching a major initiative for skill development and job training for unemployed youth as part of the ambitious programme of creating a lakh jobs annually in the IT/ITeS and BT sectors, apparel, hospitality, security, building and construction sectors. MoUs will be signed on November 23 with trade and industry organisations like CII, FICCI, BCIC and KASSIA for providing training, the minister said.

Auto gas station in twin cities soon

Auto gas station in twin cities soon

Source: HDMC Website

The first LPG auto gas dispensing station (ALDS) in the twin-cities will be ready for commissioning in two months.

Taking the lead in this re­gard is the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPC), which is setting up the first ALDS in Hubli. "The ALDS would be ready by January or February," an HPC official informed, adding that the next such facility would be established at Dharwad.

The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has also set its sights on a prime location to set up its first auto fuel-dispensing centre in the city, which it plans to set up by April 2007.

It has begun hectic efforts to secure centrally-located spots. Last week, senior IOC officials from Belgaum and Hubli met and held discussions with Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) commissioner P Manivannan and sought his help in finding such prime plots.

Endorsing his dialogues with IOC officials, Manivannan said: "The HDMC is keen on promoting LPG auto fuel stations in Hubli-Dharwad, in view of the high pollution levels recorded in the twin-cities. But we are not sure whether we have such prime lands in the heart of the city. However, I have directed my officials to find out and re­port and that may take one or two weeks."

Moved by the initiative' taken by oil companies, Sunil Nalvade, a resident, said: "When all major cities are switching to LPG, why should Hubli-Dharwad be left be­hind? Taking into consideration the pollution level in the city and that CNG is still a distant possibility, we have no option but to fall back on LPG."

Supporting his views, State Pollution Control board officials said auto gas units would facilitate installation of the required conversion kits in vehicles on a large scale.

Hubli-Dharwad already has over 10,000 private cars and auto rickshaws that run

on LPG and the setting up of auto gas stations may see a ten-fold increase in such cars.

Highlighting the significance of auto LPG stations, S R Kulkarni, an IOC officer, said LPG, which is commonly referred to as the "green fuel", reduces air pollution to a great extent because of its lead-free characteristic.

Moreover, he said auto LPG gas is very cost-effective as it operates at one-third the cost of conventional fuel and is increasingly becoming popular with automobile owners.

The saving for vehicles running on auto gas works out to around 40 per cent, he said. While one litre of auto­gas is priced ataround Rs 25, the same quantity of petrol is around Rs 57.

"The consumption of LPG is approximately 10 per cent more than petrol to obtain equivalent mileage," he added