Infra Today

13/10/2025

13/10/2025

KRCL के साथ रणनीतिक साझेदारी
यह ऑर्डर ऐसे समय में मिला है जब HCC ने हाल ही में कोकण रेलवे कॉर्पोरेशन लिमिटेड (KRCL) के साथ रणनीतिक समझौता (MoU) किया है। इस समझौते के तहत दोनों इकाइयां भारत और विदेशों में रेलवे, मेट्रो और मल्टी-मॉडल ट्रांसपोर्ट इंफ्रास्ट्रक्चर परियोजनाओं पर संयुक्त रूप से कार्य करेंगी। साझेदारी का फोकस भूमिगत-ऊंचाई वाले मेट्रो सिस्टम, NATM टनलिंग, रेलवे ब्रिज और बड़े EPC प्रोजेक्ट्स पर रहेगा। HCC और KRCL मिलकर जॉइंट वेंचर, कंसोर्टियम या PPP मॉडल के तहत EPC और डिजाइन-बिल्ड परियोजनाओं में बोली लगा सकेंगे। यह समझौता HCC की भविष्य की ऑर्डर बुक व योग्यता पोर्टफोलियो में स्थायी वृद्धि ला सकता है।

Hindustan Construction Company का अनुभव और ऐतिहासिक योगदान
HCC को भारत के निर्माण उद्योग में 100 वर्षों की इंजीनियरिंग विरासत का लाभ है। कंपनी ने अब तक भारत की 26% हाइड्रो पावर और 60% न्यूक्लियर पावर जनरेशन इंफ्रास्ट्रक्चर का निर्माण किया है, साथ ही 4,036 लेन-किमी हाईवे, 402 किमी टनल और 403 ब्रिज पूर्ण किए हैं। कंपनी अब औद्योगिक इंफ्रास्ट्रक्चर पर ध्यान केंद्रित कर रही है, जो लंबी अवधि में एक हाई-मार्जिन ऑफसेट दे सकता है।

13/10/2025

‘Smile, you’re on camera’ – India rolls out multi-lane free flow tolling system

Highly sensitive optical cameras will throng along Indian highways and expressways in the near future, and almost every vehicle will pass through their gaze, albeit for toll collection. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has initiated the process of implementing a multi-lane free flow (MLFF) tolling system.

Indian Highways Management Co Ltd (IHMCL), a company promoted by NHAI along with road concessionaires and financial institutions, has started rolling out tenders for implementing such barrier-less tolling system that enables transactions through reading of FASTag and Vehicle Registration Number (VRN) by high-performance RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) readers and ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras

Initially, the MLFF system will be rolled out at about 25 National Highway fee plazas during the current financial year on highway stretches operated by the NHAI. It will comprise a bank or a financial entity along with a system integrator, which will be responsible for setting up the tolling system.

“Seven or eight projects have already been out where the banks have bid, such as ICICI Bank, Airtel Payment Bank, JIO Payments platform and IDFC First. These are the four frontrunner banks as far as the MLFF space is concerned,” said Anuresh Sharma, Chief Operating Officer - Highway Traffic Management System, Arya Omnitalk - a company providing intelligent tolling solutions.

Three elements of MLFF
For the successful implementation of the MLFF system, three elements must work perfectly: the front ANPR, the rear ANPR, and the RFID reader installed on gantries.

“The RFID tag, the FASTag has to be read and the front license plate of the vehicle is to be captured. Through optical character recognition technology we will come to know what is the license plate and the vehicle registration number,” explained Sharma, outlining that adoption of artificial intelligence will help in much more accurate reading of license plates of vehicles.

“When the vehicle is going away from the gantry, we will take a picture of the rear license plate. So, we will have three inputs, the front ANPR, the rear ANPR, the RFID reader,” he said.

Along with highly accurate optical character recognition technology enabled by artificial intelligence, LiDAR or Light Detection and Ranging, a laser-enabled remote sensing technology, will also enable classification of the vehicle type.

The transaction will be captured and then transmitted to the bank or financial entity responsible for the toll collection. From thereon, the bank will verify the details with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and debit the amount from the FASTag wallet.

13/10/2025

Bullet train project update: NHSRCL launches 10th steel bridge on Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR corridor

Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project update: The 508-km long Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) project is under execution with technical and financial assistance from Government of Japan.

Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project latest update: The work is progressing rapidly on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor. The 508-km long Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) project is under execution with technical and financial assistance from Government of Japan.

On Saturday, the National High-Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL) successfully launched the 10th steel bridge for the Mumbai–Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR) project. Measuring 60 meters in length, the bridge is situated in Ahmedabad.

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train viaduct in Ahmedabad will pass through 31 crossings including railway tracks, flyovers, canal, one river bridge crossing at Sabarmati River and six steel bridges. The NHSRCL has planned to built 28 steel bridges for the entire corridor, out of which 17 are in Gujarat and 11 in Maharashtra.

The 10th steel bridge for Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project was launched over a western railway facility (laundry) located adjacent to the railway tracks. This is also the first steel bridge launched in Ahmedabad district for the project.

“With months of meticulous planning and preparation, the bridge launching was completed with precision in just 7 hours. For transverse launching of this bridge, it was assembled at a height of 16.5 metres from the ground on temporary trestles and was then side-slewed using two semi-automatic jacks of 200-ton capacity each, supported by locking trolleys for stability,” the NHRSCL said in a statement.

13/10/2025

The government is set to mandate that all new highway contracts projecting over 15% returns be awarded through the build-operate-transfer (BoT) model, utilizing authentic traffic data from FASTag.

New Delhi: The Centre plans to mandate awarding new highway projects under the build-operate-transfer (BoT) model if the traffic data, generated through the electronic toll collection system FASTag, shows that private developers can earn at least 15% annual returns from toll collections, two people aware of the matter said.

Less remunerative projects, such as highway contracts showing less than 15% annual returns, will be awarded under hybrid annuity model (HAM) or engineering, procurement construction (EPC) route, where the government bears full or partial construction risk and funding. By contrast, under the BoT model, the private builder develops the road, operates it, and recovers the cost through tolls.

The move is aimed at reducing investor risk in construction of greenfield highway stretches, as the developer would be aware of likely returns on investment while bidding. This is expected to allow the government to put out more projects for award under the BoT route, which places investment risk entirely on private concessionaires. The plan is to make this route attractive for most highway project awards and expects the private sector to participate more aggressively for these projects.

“As per the plan, the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) has asked its highway construction and awarding entity—-National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)—-to do fresh assessment of traffic data for all upcoming highway projects so that projections on returns could be calculated more accurately," said the first of the two persons cited earlier, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity

“This would be used to segregate highway awards with stretches projecting 15% or more returns going under BoT route while others (with less than 15% returns) getting awarded under HAM or EPC mode,” the person added.

Queries emailed to spokespersons of MoRTH and NHAI on Friday remained unanswered till press time.

government’ plan to introduce a new model concession agreement (MCA) by September-end. This move comes in the backdrop of the share of BoT projects in highway contract awards falling from a high of 90% a decade ago to less than 10% now. Private investors have so far shied away from taking up the entire risk of construction of highways and have instead opted for projects that have been awarded under HAM and EPC models

13/10/2025

Indian Authorities Have Failed to Act Against Adani Executives: US SEC Tells Court

Indian authorities have failed to act on its requests to serve summons and complaints to Adani Group executives, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is probing alleged security fraud and USD 265 million bribery scam against the Indian firm, told the court on Friday (October 12).

Reuters reported that the case against the Adani group has caught national attention in the US amidst the state regulator’s attempts to get the Indian authorities to cooperate in the matter.

In 2024, prosecutors of Brooklyn indicted the Adani group of allegedly bribing Indian officials to buy electricity produced by Adani Green Energy, a subsidiary of the Indian conglomerate. The SEC complaint claimed that the Indian executives who benefitted from the bribes then “misled” US investors about the company’s anti-graft practices by providing falsely reassuring information.

Both the Indian law and justice ministry and the Adani Group didn’t respond to Reuters’s questions, the latter had called the SEC allegations as “baseless” and said that it will take “all possible legal recourse” to get the accusations dismissed. In January 2025, Adani Green Energy appointed independent law firms to review the charges.

On Friday, the SEC told a New York district court it had repeatedly contacted India's law ministry in its attempt to serve legal documents to Adani group founder Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani. The latest communication with the ministry was on September 14 but no confirmation of delivery has been acknowledged, the SEC said.

"The SEC will continue communicating with the India Ministry of Law and Justice and pursuing service of the defendants via the Hague Service Convention," the SEC filing said.

13/10/2025

Odisha cabinet approves six river linking projects at ₹1790 crore

Odisha cabinet has decided to come with six river linking projects with a budgetary outlay of ₹1790 crore.

The State Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Majhi on Friday (October 10, 2025) has approved an ambitious scheme titled - Intra-State River Linking Scheme in Odisha at an investment of ₹1790 crore. These projects will be executed over a period of five years 2025-26 to 2029-30 fiscal.

As per the government, the project which intends to connect water-surplus river basins with water-deficient regions will improve drought resilience, create additional water storage, mitigate flood risks, and boost agricultural productivity.

Initially, the government is looking to take up Katra Link Project (feeder channels from Kansapal), Vansadhara-Rushikulya (Nandini Nalla) intra-link project, Hiradharbati Flood Flow Channel Project, Bahuda Tampara Link Project, Ong-Suktel Garland Canal Project and Telengiri-Upper Kolab Project.

There are twelve major rivers flowing in the State, of which the Mahanadi is the longest and the Bahuda is the shortest. The rivers of Odisha are mainly rainfed. Odisha government had earlier proposed

Odisha government had earlier proposed Mahanadi Godavari Link Project by constructing a storage reservoir on Mahanadi River at Manibhadra and a link canal from this reservoir to the Godavari River.

Apart from the river linking projects, the Mohan Majhi Government has decided to revive the lost ayacut by renovation and modernization and enhance the irrigation area beyond the design capacity under ‘Nabakrushna Choudhury Secha Unnayan Yojana’.

As per the approval by Cabinet, ‘Nabakrushna Choudhury Secha Unnayan Yojana’ has been extended for a further period of five years from 2025-26 to 2029-30 with an outlay of ₹1437.00 crore. It is expected to achieve optimum utilisation of the designed irrigation for revival of lost ayacut by restoring irrigation potential of 1,23,448 hectare and increasing additional irrigation coverage of 4862 hectare.

13/10/2025

रिलायंस पॉवर के सीएफओ को ईडी की हिरासत में भेजा

पटियाला हाउस कोर्ट ने रिलायंस पॉवर के CFO अशोक कुमार पाल को 68 करोड़ रुपये की फर्जी बैंक गारंटी से जुड़े धनशोधन मामले में दो दिन की ईडी हिरासत में भेजा। आरोप है कि उन्होंने रिलायंस पॉवर के फंड का गबन.

पटियाला हाउस कोर्ट ने उद्योगपति अनिल अंबानी की कंपनी रिलायंस पॉवर के मुख्य वित्तीय अधिकारी (सीएफओ) अशोक कुमार पाल को दो दिन की ईडी हिरासत में भेजा है। 68 करोड़ रुपये की कथित फर्जी बैंक गारंटी से जुड़े धनशोधन के मामले में यह आदेश विशेष न्यायाधीश किरण गुप्ता की कोर्ट ने दिया है। सोमवार को पाल को दोबारा कोर्ट में पेश किया जाएगा। जानकारी के मुताबिक पाल को शुक्रवार देर रात ईडी ने कई घंटों की पूछताछ के बाद हिरासत में लिया। आरोप है कि उन्होंने रिलायंस पॉवर के फंड का गबन करने और फर्जी वित्तीय दस्तावेज बनाने में अहम भूमिका निभाई।

जांच के अनुसार, यह मामला सोलर एनर्जी कॉर्पोरेशन ऑफ इंडिया (एसईसीआई) के बैटरी एनर्जी स्टोरेज सिस्टम (बीईएसएस) टेंडर में 68 करोड़ रुपये की फर्जी बैंक गारंटी से जुड़ा है। पाल को बोर्ड के निर्णय के तहत एसईसीआई के लिए दस्तावेज तैयार करने, अनुमोदित करने और निष्पादित करने का अधिकार था। आरोप है कि इस क्षमता का उपयोग कर उन्होंने फर्जी बैंक गारंटी प्रस्तुत कर धोखा देने का प्रयास किया था। यह मामला रिलायंस पावर की सहायक कंपनी रिलायंस एनयू बीईएसएस लिमिटेड की ओर से सोलर एनर्जी कॉर्पोरेशन ऑफ इंडिया लिमिटेड (एसईसीआई) को जमा की गई 68.2 करोड़ रुपये की बैंक गारंटी से संबंधित है, जो फर्जी पाई गई। ईडी ने व्यावसायिक समूहों के लिए कथित रूप से फर्जी बैंक गारंटी प्रदान करने का गिरोह चलाने वाली आरोपी कंपनी की पहचान ओडिशा स्थित बिस्वाल ट्रेडलिंक के रूप में की है। ईडी ने जांच के तहत अगस्त में कंपनी और उसके प्रवर्तकों के खिलाफ छापेमारी की थी और इसके प्रबंध निदेशक पार्थ सारथी बिस्वाल को गिरफ्तार किया था। धनशोधन का यह मामला दिल्ली पुलिस की आर्थिक अपराध शाखा (ईओडब्ल्यू) द्वारा नवंबर 2024 में दर्ज की गई एक प्राथमिकी से जुड़ा है। आरोप है कि कंपनी आठ प्रतिशत कमीशन पर फर्जी बैंक गारंटी जारी करने में शामिल थी।

13/10/2025

JNPA: Gaurav Dayal is the new Chairman

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has appointed Gaurav Dayal (IAS: 2004: UP) as Chairperson (JS level), Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA), Navi Mumbai under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.

Sanjay Sethi (IAS: 1992: MH) in January 2024 successfully completed his five-year tenure at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) as its Chairman. Sethi handed over the baton to his deputy Unmesh Sharad Wagh (IRS C&IC: 2002) as Chairman (In-Charge).

It may be underlined that as Divisional Commissioner of Ayodhya, Aligarh, Chitrokoot he headed multiple divisions, overseeing developmental and administrative initiatives. While serving as Divisional Commissioner, Ayodhya he oversaw major projects including those related to the Ram Temple. In U.P. he also worked as Secretary, Home Department; OSD to Chief Secretary; Special Secretary, Tourism Department and Commissioner in the Industries Department.