Transport
Railways: Finding the `rail' to success
THE INDIAN Railways is set for a radical restructuring with none other than the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, suggesting that rail operations be separated from planning and policy-making.
SAILing in troubled waters
THE Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is facing a grave problem due to the shortage of coking coal. And the company's problems cannot be solved even by large-scale import of coking coal.
Fostering a compact transport system
WORLDWIDE, transport growth has consistently exceeded economic growth, resulting from increasing economic specialisation, sourcing of material on a wider scale, logistics trends that involve fewer warehouses and longer distances, and retail and wholesale
activities that continue to disperse.
AVMS to hit the road soon
IMAGINE the scene. A cargo-laden truck is speeding along the highway in some remote location, when, suddenly, it skids off the road and ploughs crazily through a roadside paddy field. The vehicle crashes against a tree before overturning, while the uncon
scious driver slumps over the steering wheel. Normally, it would be several hours before he is spotted, and several days before the vehicle owner is informed and arranges to recover the vehicle.
Vallarpadam Transshipment Terminal project -- All at sea, yet
THE prestigious Vallarpadam Transshipment Terminal (VTT) project at Kochi port is caught in a sea of uncertainty. The Shipping Ministry is sitting over the proposal, mooted by the Cochin Port Trust (CoPT), to develop the project as a joint venture with P
&O Ports India Pvt Ltd.
Black-boxes for ships soon
The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) will soon make it mandatory for ships to be equipped with voyage data recorders (VDRs) or `black boxes'. In aircraft, these equipment record all data, and are especially useful in case of an accident. The IMO
's decision came following its Maritime Safety Committee meeting in London recently.
`Green' signal for LPG storage facility
INDIA'S first underground LPG storage facility has got the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board's nod after the mandatory public hearing. The project is to be set up at Vizag by South Asia LPG Company Ltd (SALPG).
Haldia Dock landed
The Goa-based Sesa Goa Ltd Managing Director has lauded the performance of Haldia Dock Complex through a letter to its General Manager. Its vessel, M.V. Pataliputra, was loaded with 26,193 tonnes of iron ore at the dock for shipment to China. For the pur
pose of topping up, another 20,000 tonnes were loaded at the Paradip port. The performance of Haldia, the letter said, was superb. The dock was able to load the vessel at an average rate of 12,000 tonnes per day, which was a record.
FEPZ jetty: Caught in the crossfire
THE Falta Export Processing Zone (FEPZ), with a much improved performance, is now looking at a turnover target of Rs 320 crore for 2000-01. But the proposed plan to convert the under-utilised jetty facilities at FEPZ into a minor port has not made much h
eadway, because of the indecisiveness on the part of both the Ministry of Shipping (MoS) and the State government. Minor ports are State subjects, and MoS insists that the State government first declare the jetty at FEPZ a minor port.
