Tata Motors assures Karnataka it is in race for second Nano plant

Tata Motors assures Karnataka it is in race for second Nano plant

Business Standard September 01, 2009, 1:04 IST

Bangalore: Karnataka may have narrowly lost the race for housing Tata Motors’ Nano car plant but that is not stopping the southern state from nursing ambitions of winning the second round of the same race. It was late last year when Tata Motors announced that it would set up the first plant for producing the Rs 1-lakh car at Gujarat’s Sanand rather than Karnataka’s Dharwad, among other places.

Now, if all goes well, Karnataka will get a chance to play host to Tata Motors’ proposed second Nano car plant in South India. The state government has been assured by the company that Dharwad will be a preferred choice for the company’s plans to expand its Nano manufacturing capacity into South India.

The state government, in turn, has assured the company that it will provide the required land as well as tax concessions, similar to those offered by the Gujarat government, for setting up the second Nano car plant, Karnataka minister for medium and large industries Murugesh R Nirani said.

“When Tata Motors initially came to inspect Dharwad, we had offered them 600 acres within 24 hours and had assured another 400 acres in three months. But the company chose to go to Gujarat for reasons best known to them. However, they have told us, for expansion of their Nano car capacity, they will consider Dharwad and we have promised them all possible help,” he told Business Standard.

Nirani added the state government recently acquired 2,500 acres at Dharwad, adjacent to the existing Tata Motors’ bus plant, where the company had intended to set up the Nano plant. Tata Motors had indicated a requirement of around 1,000 acres.

“We have already discussed this with the company’s higher officials. They have plans to set up one more plant in South India for producing the Nano car and they want to do it in Dharwad because it is closer to Pune, where they have a major presence. Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata has invited us for further talks in this regard and we will soon meet him,” Nirani said.

Tata is currently manufacturing the Nano at their plant in Pantnagar. Its dedicated Nano car plant will be operational at Sanand in Gujarat by early 2010.

At Dharwad, Tata Motors currently operates two plants to manufacture construction equipment under the Telcon brand name. It also produces buses in a joint venture with Brazil’s Marcopolo. So far, it has acquired 600 acres and employs around 3,500 workers in both the plants. The company has invested close to Rs 500 crore in its bus plant, which started commercial production in January this year.

In addition to Tata’s Nano car plant, the state government is also in talks with Korea’s car maker Hyundai Motors and the domestic utility vehicle major, Mahindra and Mahindra, for locating their new plants in Karnataka.

Recently, the state government approved an additional investment proposal of Rs 800 crore by Toyota Kirloskar Motors at Bidadi, near Bangalore. The government is also planning to hold a special meeting with the automobile industry very soon in Bangalore, as a precursor to its forthcoming global investors’ meet scheduled to be held in January 2010, Nirani added.

College evolves strategy to improve traffic management

College evolves strategy to improve traffic management
Times News Network, 19 August 2009, 10:17pm IST

DHARWAD: The SDM College of Engineering and Technology's (SDMCET) civil engineering department has evolved three-phased strategies to improve the traffic management in the twin cities of Hubli-Dharwad.

The study conducted by the M.Tech students of SDMCET under the World Bank aided Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) in association with NITK-Suratkal has revealed that the number of vehicles in the twin cities has gone up by 150 fold in the last 50 years while the roads have just seen an eight-fold development.

Making a presentation of the survey findings, NITK professors Ravi Mulangi and Ravishankar said widening of roads, construction of footpaths, fly overs, ring roads, encouraging use of public transportation, providing space for bus bays and parking lots, shifting of city bus terminus and strict enforcement of traffic rules were the solutions to ease traffic congestion. Ravi Mulangi made an elaborate presentation of various junctions in the twin cities where traffic snarls are a regular feature.

During the interaction that followed among the senior officers of various departments, elected representatives and other stake holders agreed that there was need for proper coordination among all the agencies.

Police commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar said the police though the main enforcing agency had financial constraint to put the entire traffic system in order. He pointed out that enforcement would be possible only when other agencies like NWKRTC, Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation and RTO discharged their part of duty in enforcement effectively.

Stating that the police while trying to educate the people on traffic rules would be tough on offenders and punishment would educate the offenders.

He appealed to the elected representatives to prevail upon the government to spare some funds out of the Rs 100 crore specially sanctioned to the twin cities for installing gadgets related to traffic management.

HDMC commissioner P S Vastrad said there was no problem of coordination among different agencies and assured that HDMC would support the measures taken by the police in ensuring effective traffic system.

DC Darpan Jain said a comprehensive plan for traffic and transportation was being prepared for the twin cities. He observed that of late due consideration for traffic management is being given while discussing development plans.

Project coordinator Mahesh Patil, ACP (Traffic) Sanjiv Patil, MLA Veerabhadrappa Halaharvi, HDUDA chairman Datta Dorle, NWKRTC chairman Mallikarjun Sawkar, officials from RTO, NWKRTC and KUIDFC spoke on the occasion.

Financial reforms improve water supply in twin cities

Financial reforms improve water supply in twin cities
M L Kapur, TNN 18 August 2009, 10:22pm IST

HUBLI: When Karnataka Urban Water Supply & Drainage Board (KUWSDB) was handed over maintenance and operation of water supply in Hubli-Dharwad municipal limits during the drought in 2003, the residents used to get drinking water once in 10-14 days. Six years down the line, they get it once in 4-5 days.

During the same period, while KUWS&DBs expenditure has increased from Rs 10.88 crore to Rs 17.13 crore, its revenue has shot up from Rs 3.61 crore to Rs 17.81 crore, thus generating surplus funds for expanding water supply network to uncovered areas like the newly developed extensions.

In 2003, none of the 69,000 consumers had metered connection. Today, 65% of over one lakh connections have metered supply. Those who chose to pay their water bills then had to wait for over one hour in the queue to make payment. Now, they can do it in less than 30 minutes at the neighbourhood cash centre.

Earlier, consumers had to get prior approval of the authorities before making part payment of outstanding bills. Now, part payment is allowed without prior approval. Consumers have been issued bar coded I-cards, which allows them to make payment without even producing the bills.

These are some of the IT-enabled citizen-friendly initiatives introduced by the Water Board which have enabled it to bring about metamorphic improvement in water supply scenario in the twin cities. These financial reforms have helped it bag the National Urban Water Award-2009, given by the central ministry of urban development.

KUWS&DB executive engineer K P Jayaram, who has been at the helms in the twin cities all through this trying period, gave a presentation before the awards ceremony in New Delhi, for possible replication by other urban local bodies across the country. Union urban development minister Jaipal Reddy also witnessed the presentation.

Jayaram told 'TOI' that there are plans to introduce self-billing, whereby consumers will record meter reading, visit the nearest computerized collection centre, pay the bill after the system automatically calculated the amount, and walk away. Online bill payment facility is also in the offing. It will do away with human errors/ malpractices and improve revenue collection.

Karnataka govt plans 300-km steel corridor

Karnataka govt plans 300-km steel corridor

T E Narasimhan / Chennai August 10, 2009, 0:02 IST

The Karnataka government is planning to develop a 300-km ‘steel corridor’, and the state expects this project to attract investments worth Rs 20,000 crore from steel majors. The corridor, which is expected to create 200,000 direct and indirect jobs, is planned around the iron ore-rich Bellary-Hospet area in eastern Karnataka.

Speaking to Business Standard on the sidelines of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)’s Suminfra 2009 meet, V Madhu, principal secretary (infrastructure development), said the state wanted to move from just exporting ore to value-added production of steel.

Mining and steel majors including NMDC, Tata Steel, JSW and Brahmani have evinced interest in the project. The idea is that each steel manufacturer could erect a manufacturing unit of at least two million tonne, he said.

Work on a 120-kilometre rail link between Hubli and Ankola and identification of 500 square kilometre of land for the industrial park is already on. Tenders for development of the park will be floated in two months, he added.

Madhu said the government also wanted a nuclear power unit in the corridor. “We met the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, and gave our recommendation to set up a nuclear plant at Tadri. ” The government is also promoting a port at Tadri on the west coast,” he said.