The National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust (NICDIT) has given approval for developing the Kochi Global Industrial Finance and Trade (GIFT) City in Aluva as an Early Bird Project. The project will be implemented under the Kochi Bangalore Industrial Corridor. The GIFT City will come up in 220 ha of land in Aluva, a strategic location in the vicinity of Cochin International Airport. The project will put Kochi on global map as a destination with state-of-the-art infrastructure. The aim was to bring in investment for development of trunk infrastructure to the tune of Rs 1,600 crore, besides giving a spur to building PPP infrastructure to the tune of Rs 18,000 crore over a period of 10 years.

This will create over 1.20 lakh direct and 3.6 lakh indirect employment opportunities for people in Kerala and have a great multiplier effect on the state’s economy. The Global City Project is planned with a financial/business centre as an integral part and growth driver for the city complemented with knowledge-based industries. It will provide an integrated ecosystem for development of globally competitive hi-tech services and financial hubs.

The land acquisition for the project is expected to be completed by February 2021. A master planning agency will start work from early September 2020 and complete the master plan by February 2021. Activities like environment clearance, tenders, etc will start in March 2021 and completed by May-June 2021. Master planning activities will be completed in eight months and construction works will start after selection of agency for construction through a transparent bidding process.

The state government has accorded administrative sanction for establishing and developing GIFT City and sanctioned Rs 540 crore for acquisition of land which will be its share in the project. The Central government through NICDIT will provide an equal amount as its share and grant additional funds if required for completing the infrastructure works as a soft loan to the special purpose vehicle (SPV) to be set up for it. Besides, the Centre will help in marketing the project nationally and internationally to potential investors. If required it will mobilise financial resources from the private sector, market, bilateral and multilateral agencies on behalf of SPV for the project.

In a move to achieve the objective of becoming 100 percent self-sustainable for all power needs and also contribute to national solar power goals, the Indian Railways has solarised over 960 stations till date. Some of the stations solarised are Varanasi, New Delhi, Old Delhi, Jaipur, Secunderabad, Kolkata, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Howrah and others.

Orders have been placed for 198 MW solar rooftop capacity for 550 stations which are under execution. Also, the Indian Railways had recently organised a meet of leading solar power developers who shared their expectations of being partners in the journey to become net zero carbon emitters before 2030. It is set to produce solar energy for meeting all its energy consumption needs of more than 33 billion units by 2030.

At present, the annual requirement is about 20 billion units. It has a plan for installing solar plants of 20 GW capacity by utilising its vacant land by 2030. In this regard, bids for three GW solar projects on vacant railway land parcels and along the railway track have already been invited by Railway Energy Management Company (REMCL), a PSU of the Indian Railways.

These solar projects, besides supplying power to railways at reduced tariff, will also protect the railway land by construction of a boundary wall along the track. Around 51,000 ha vacant land is available with the Indian Railways and now ready to extend support to developers for installing solar power plants on the Railway’s vacant un-encroached land. Moreover, the Railways is also set to achieve 100 percent electrification by the year 2023.

The Rajiv Gandhi Housing Corporation has invited bids for construction of 2,446 (G+one and G+two) dwelling units, including infrastructure works at Mandakalli in Mysuru city of Karnataka. The work will be taken up under Pradhana Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) Housing for All (PMAY (U)-HFA) .The estimated value of the project is Rs 167.8 crore with completion period of 24 months.

Emerald Haven Realty (EHRL), a part of the TVS Group, has roped in Asian property company Keppel Land (Keppel Land) to develop a housing project in South Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The partners will develop the project through a JV, in which Keppel Land’s subsidiary will take 49 percent stake for Rs 77.2 crore (around SGD 14.1 million).

The residential project is currently being undertaken by Emerald Haven Life Spaces (Radial Road) (EHLS), a subsidiary of TVS Emerald. EHLS will transfer its undertaking, consisting of the project and the site, to a SPV. Keppel Land through its wholly-owned subsidiary Orizona (Arizona) will acquire the stake in the JV company. The total development cost of the project is expected to be about Rs 540 crore (around SGD 98.2 million), with Keppel Land’s share estimated to be about Rs 260 crore (around SGD 48.1 million).

The partners will jointly develop a project on 2.4 ha site along Pallavaram Thoraipakkam Radial Road (PTR), a fast-developing information technology (IT) corridor in South Chennai. The completion of land acquisition is subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions precedent and expected to take place in H1/2021. The JV looks forward to do larger residential/ mixed development projects in Chennai.

Keppel Land and TVS Emerald plan to develop a premium condominium offering recreational facilities and a modern clubhouse. The gated development will have a total saleable area of about one million sq ft and consist of apartments, mostly in two- or three-bedroom configurations, with many units offering a view of the adjacent Kovilambakkam lake. The construction is expected to commence in Q3/2021. The company has completed the construction of 1.4 million sq ft till date and the total area under development as on date is 5.5 million sq ft.

ARSS Infrastructure Projects has bagged an order worth Rs 77.60 crore for electrification works and construction of bypass line in Andhra Pradesh. The scope of work involves construction of roadbed, bridges and general electrification works for third line of track between Gotlam (Incl) (459.840 km)-Vizianagaram (Inc)(818.65 km on HWH-VSKP Main Line) for a length of six km and construction of a new single line BG track.The work also involves bypass line between Gotlam and Nellimarla (8.035 km) involving construction of roadbed, bridges and general electrification works between Gotlam (Excl)(461.252 km)-Nellimarla Junction cabin (812 km/6-8 on HWH-VSKP Main Line) in Waltair Division of the East Coast Railway, Andhra Pradesh. The work on third line will be completed in 12 months and work on bypass line will be executed in 18 months.

The government of Odisha has decided to set up a new 100-bed COVID-19 hospital at VIMSAR, Burla, to cater to the growing need of patients in Western Odisha. The presently operating isolation ward in VIMSAR will be developed to one 100-bed COVID hospital with ICU facilities. This will made functional in 10 days’ time. the state government had decided to set up new COVID-19 hospitals and expand the additional facility in the existing hospitals in three districts including Cuttack, Koraput, and Khordha. The decision has been taken on the recommendation of the Technical Expert Committee

The North Eastern Railway has floated tender for construction of railway bridge. The scope of work involves construction of important bridge no 391 with well foundation and open web steel girder (17 X 61.00 mtr ) over river Ghaghra between Chowka Ghat and Ghaghra Ghat stations of the Gonda-Burhwal section of North Eastern Railway in connection with construction of third line in Uttar Pradesh. The work will be completed in 24 months at a cost of Rs 114.22 crore.

DCM Shriram is planning to invest around USD 143 million in a brownfield expansion project in Gujarat. It will be backed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The proposed project is 700 tpd brownfield expansion of its chlor-alkali plant at Bharuch in Gujarat along with 500 tpd flaker plant and 120 MW captive power plant. The project is expected to cost approximately USD 143 million. IFC’s investment will be used to fund the chlor-alkali plant expansion and flaker plant costing USD 89 million, along with long term working capital and routine capex. IFC plans to provide senior loan of up to USD 40 million in the form of non-convertible debentures (NCD). The captive power plant will be funded through the company’s internal cash flows. IFC’s financing will also help to add around 100 permanent skilled jobs and 250 temporary jobs and preserve 800 temporary jobs during construction, because of the expansion. The expansion will also ensure availability of caustic soda at competitive prices, and key raw materials to downstream industries such as aluminum, paper, detergents, agro-chemicals and pharmaceuticals.