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Showing posts with label CCEA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CCEA. Show all posts

Tuesday, 30 August 2016

07:04

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave approval to construction of a third line

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave approval to construction of a third line

New Delhi: To cope with local demand and smoothen rail traffic, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday gave approval to construction of a third line on several busiest railway routes, including Itarsi-Nagpur, Jhansi-Bina and Mathur-Jhansi sections.

The CCEA meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The 280 km-long third line between Itarsi and Nagpur, given approval, is estimated to cost Rs 2,449.91 crore — with anticipated completion cost pegged at Rs 2,882.94 crore — and is expected to be completed in five years.

Besides facilitating travel, the line will provide additional transport capacity for industries in and around the Itarsi-Nagpur section.

Hoshangabad, Chhindwara and Betul districts of Madhya Pradesh and Nagpur district of Maharashtra will be covered by this line.

The CCEA also gave its approval for construction of a third line between Ballarshah and Kazipet at an estimated cost of Rs 2,063.03 crore and expected completion cost of Rs 2,403.22 crore.

The 201.04 km-long railway line is expected to be completed in five years.

Besides facilitating travel, power plants, coal and cement traffic will have additional transport capacity to meet their requirements. Warangal, Adilabad and Karimnagar districts of Telengana and Chandrapur district of Maharashtra will be covered by this line.

CCEA also approved the construction of a third line between Jhansi-Bina and Mathura-Jhansi.

Besides facilitating the travel, goods trains passing through both these sections will get adequate capacity for smooth running.

Jhansi and Lalitpur districts of Uttar Pradesh and Sagar district (Bina) of Madhya Pradesh will be covered by Jhansi-Bina line while Mathura, Agra and Jhansi districts of Uttar Pradesh, Datiya, Gwalior and Morena districts of Madhya Pradesh and Dholpur district of Rajasthan will be covered by the Mathura-Jhansi line.

The Mathura-Jhansi section is a broad gauge double-line on the New Delhi-Mumbai CST route. These projects will enhance capacity, reduce detention and cater for future growth of traffic.

At present, the number of passenger and goods trains on these sections is far more than the capacity, resulting in heavy detention for trains.

The construction of a third line between Vijaywada Junction and Gudur Junction was also given the nod by the CCEA.

Krishna, Guntur, Prakasham and P.S. Nellore districts of Andhra Pradesh will be covered by this line.

The construction of a third line between Rajnandgaon-Nagpur (Kalumna) in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh and Gondia, Bhandara and Nagpur districts in Maharashtra was also given the CCEA nod.

CCEA also approved the construction of a third line between Kharagpur (Nimpura) and Adityapur in West Singhburn districts of Jharkhand.

This line will ease the ever-increasing freight traffic between these sections.

The CCEA gave its approval for construction of a fourth line between Jharsuguda and Bilaspur.

The Jharsuguda-Bilaspur route forms part of the Howrah-Mumbai trunk route passing through major industrial areas. This line plays an important role in transportation of freight and passenger traffic from eastern and southern regions to northern and western regions, and vice versa. In order to meet the growth in the freight and passenger traffic, construction of fourth line on this route was essential.

The CCEA also approved the construction of a second line between New Bongaigaon and Kamakhya of Northeast Frontier Railway in Assam.

The single main line section from New Bongaigaon to Kamakhya via Goalpara is an alternative route to New Bongaigaon-Kamakhya via Rangiya linking Guwahati.

The doubling of New Bongaigaon-Kamakhya via Goalpara route would augment the line capacity for smooth running of trains through the section.

Source:Railnews
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Friday, 23 October 2015

16:27

Ministry of Railways included 77 doubling, 4 new line and 1 gauge conversion project in Railway Budget 2015-16.



Ministry of Railways included 77 doubling, 4 new line and 1 gauge conversion project in Railway Budget 2015-16.  

Railways Fast Tracks Implementation of Projects

The projects were included primarily with a viewpoint to create additional carrying capacity.  Fast tracking of these projects was need of the hour so as to reap benefits of the projects as soon as possible. Under direction of Minister of Railways Shri. Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, a number of measures have been under taken for expeditious execution of these projects:

(i) So far the practice was to include a project in railway budget and send for ‘In Principle Approval’ (IPA) of NITI Aayog, hold meetings of Extended Board of Railways and finally seek approval of Cabinet (CCEA).  Once Cabinet approval is available, Railways used to go for Final Location Survey and subsequent preparation of Detailed Estimate.  An expenditure can be incurred only after Detailed Estimate or part thereof has been sanctioned.  This process used to take 2-3 years, which means tenders can be called roughly after 2 years of inclusion in Railway Budget. 

(ii)To reduce this time gap of two years, Ministry Railways asked zonal railways to carry out Final Location Survey immediately after inclusion of the work in Railway Budget. After Final Location Survey, the zonal railways were asked to send Detailed Project Report (DPR) to Railway Board with a reasonably firm cost.  Out of 77 doubling projects sanctioned in this year, detailed project reports of 73 doubling projects has been prepared and received in Railway Board.

(iii)Examination and scrutiny of DPR in Railway Ministry has been fast tracked by forming committee of concerned officers for this purpose instead of examination from table to table by individual officer.   

(iv)Request for ‘In Principle Approval’ (IPA) of NITI Aayog is being sent after DPR is examined in Railway Board.  As many as 15 IPA have been received from NITI Aayog.  Out of these 15 IPAs, 4 projects which cost more than Rs.1000 cr. are being sent to CCEA for approval. 

(v)Zonal Railways have been advised to call tenders immediately after IPA is received.  However, a financial commitment can be made only after all requisite approvals are in place. 

(vi)To obviate delays further, Railways are now being advised to invite tenders immediately after a DPR is sent to NITI Aayog for IPA without waiting for approval.

(vii) This has effectively reduced tender calling period from 2 years after inclusion of a project in Pink Book to 6-9 months. 

(viii) In addition to this, zonal railways have been given more powers to sanction detailed estimates so as to reduce delays in such sanctions.

(ix)Power for accepting all tenders have now been delegated to zonal railways which results into overcoming delays on this account.

 Source:PIBNEWS.
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Thursday, 8 October 2015

05:03

Railways goes for drastic cut in Tender processing time

Railways goes for drastic cut in Tender processing time

New Delhi: Faced with a huge backlog of pending projects, railways has accelerated project execution by cutting down tender processing time from 2-3 years to 6-9 months with focus on faster completion of works which are commercially viable and can reap huge benefits for the cash-strapped transporter.

With the fast-track mechanism in place, tendering process for 14 doubling projects worth Rs.13,260 crore out of 77 worth Rs.96,000 crore announced in the rail budget 2015-16 has already started.

According to earlier practice, it used to take 2-3 years after tenders were called for a particular project announced in rail budget. The tardy process has resulted in backlog of around 300 projects costing around Rs 3.5 lakh crore over the years.

Earlier, after a project was included in the budget, it was sent to Planning Commission (now NITI Aayog) for ‘in-principle’ approval. Then it used to go to the extended railway board and finally to cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA). Once CCEA approved it, railways would go for the final location survey and subsequently prepare detailed estimates. Expenditure could be incurred only after detailed estimates or part of it had been sanctioned.

“This process takes 2-3 years which means tender can be called roughly two years after a project is included in the budget,” an official said. To cut down the time gap of two years, railways has asked zonal railways to carry out final location survey immediately after work is included in the budget. Zones have been directed to send detailed project report (DPR) to railway board with a reasonably firm cost. After examining DPR, the board sends it to NITI Aayog for ‘in-principle’ approval. CCEA would consider the projects after Aayog’s nod.

“Zones can call tenders soon after Aayog’s approval. However, the financial commitment can be made only after all approvals are in place,” said an official, adding that zones are empowered to sanction detailed estimates and can accept all tenders.

A senior official said, “With new mechanism in place, out of 77 projects, DPRs of 67 has been prepared and received by the board. Around 14 has received Aayog’s nod and they have been sent to CCEA for final approval.”

The projects fast-tracked by railways included works related to providing connectivity to coal and iron mines in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha and busy passenger lines.
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Thursday, 17 September 2015

07:55

Importance to Doubling of Hotgi-Kudgi-Gadag route (284 Km) of railways

Importance to Doubling of Hotgi-Kudgi-Gadag route (284 Km) of railways

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved doubling of the Hotgi-Kudgi-Gadag railway line at an anticipated cost of Rs.1618 crore and completion cost of Rs.2058 crore. Out of this, Rs.946 crore (completion cost) is already received from NTPC under the Customer Funding Model for doubling of the stretch between Hotgi-Kudgi (134 km) and the remaining amount of Rs.1107.58 crore will be funded through the Gross Budgetary Support of Ministry of Railways or Extra Budgetary Resources or both.

A number of Integrated Steel Plants/Power Plants/Cement Plants are coming up along the Hotgi-Kudgi-Gadag route. This doubling work will provide the necessary line capacity for introduction of additional trains and smooth movement of rakes to/from the industries/power plants. This will also boost overall development of the region. In view of the industrial activities taking place in the area, demands are also being received for running of additional train services through this route.

Hotgi-Kudgi-Gadag route is a single line rail link between Guntakal-Pune-Mumbai and Hospet-Hubli-Goa rail routes. This is an important rail link connecting the cities of Bangalore and Mumbai.

Source :PIBNEWS.
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Friday, 17 July 2015

10:11

What is Swiss Challenge Method

400 Railway Stations to be Redeveloped using ‘Swiss Challenge Method’

New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the redevelopment of 400 railway stations, and added that they would be redone using the Swiss Challenge method. “The Cabinet has approved the redevelopment of railway stations. 400 railway stations to be redeveloped using the Swiss Challenge method. The Cabinet has also decided that 400 railway stations will be redeveloped across the nation,” Jaitley told media here. The stations will be offered for development by leveraging real estate development of land and air space in and around stations. The redevelopment is on “as is where is” through open invitation from interested parties with their design and ideas.

What is Swiss Challenge Method

A Swiss challenge is a form of public procurement in some (usually lesser developed) jurisdictions which requires a public authority (usually an agency of government) which has received an unsolicited bid for a public project (such as a port, road or railway) or services to be provided to government, to publish the bid and invite third parties to match or exceed it.  Some Swiss challenges also allow the entity which submitted the unsolicited bid itself then to match or better the best bid which comes out of the Swiss challenge process. It is a form of regulating public procurement. An example of this is the recently announced Mega Film City Venture by the Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) in which JDA is planning to fund the venture using Swiss Challenge Philosophy.

Swiss Challenge System

As the name itself suggests Swiss Challenge System is a new bidding process to help private sector initiative in core sector projects. It’s an offer made by the original proponent to the government ensuring his process to be best (in terms of effectiveness including both the factors cost and time) by his initiative as a result of his own innovative approach or on the demand of the government to perform certain task. The Swiss challenge system, like the bonus system, further allows third parties to make better offers (challenges) for a project during a designated period with simple objective to discourage frivolous project, or to avoid exaggerated project development costs. Then accordingly, the original proponent gets the right to counter-match any superior offers given by the third party.

There are two different patterns. It’s up to the government to decide which one to adopt. The two main ways are:

The government can either purchase the intellectual property rights for a project concept from the proponent or then award the project through a competitive bidding process in which no bidder has a predefined advantage.

The government can offer the original proponent an advantage in a competitive bidding process. In this case the government should create rewards that satisfy the original proponent while still allowing a truly competitive process.

However it has been observed that in both bonus and Swiss challenge systems it is not easy to find the right balance between incentives to propose beneficial projects and incentives for third parties to submit counter proposals. In Korea and the Philippines, however, very few projects have been successfully challenged. In Chile the probability of a successful challenge appears to be high, though experience is limited. In an effort to find the right balance, some countries (such as Argentina) have begun to explore hybrid systems combining elements of the bonus system and the Swiss challenge system. However, in some countries the proposer does have certain advantages. Unlike, the lowest bidder will not be given the work order for the project. Instead, the participant who floats the design and concept for the project will have the first right of refusal.

There are various attributes, which the government takes into account while dealing with the Swiss challenge system it includes:

1. Offering cost reimbursement: Some countries such as Chile and South Africa allow reimbursement of original project proponents for their project concept or project development costs. The advantage given to the original proponent in the bidding is usually intended to compensate for use of the project concept. In addition, the bidding documents sometimes specify reimbursement for project development costs by the winning bidder or the government. Other countries (such as Korea and the Philippines) allow no reimbursement of project development costs. Advantage of offering cost reimbursement maintains private sector interest during the development phase of an infrastructure project, helps to ensure that the source of ideas is not limited to large investors with deep pockets, and encourages proponents to allocate the resources needed to ensure that projects are professionally developed.

2. Setting time limits:  Government often sets time limits on the approval and bidding phases. Time constraints on counter proposals give an obvious competitive advantage to the original project proponent. The proponent has already spent much time and effort preparing the project and thus is much more familiar with its characteristics. By contrast, a challenger may have as little as 60 days in some countries (such as the Philippines) to prepare a counter proposal. Many potential challengers may be unwilling to compete without sufficient time to prepare.

Problems

The questions relating to legal validity of using the Swiss challenge system when a counterproposal contains different specifications than the original proposal was always being raised. The problem was being observed at the time of construction of International Passenger Terminal 3 in Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport, where several issues relating to validity of system were being raised. The challenger was eventually awarded the concession.
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