MeraPahad Community Of Uttarakhand Lovers

NTPC's hydel, coal mining plans to be delayed

New Delhi (PTI): State-run power utility NTPC Ltd's ambitious plans to diversify into hydroelectric generation and coal mining are likely to be delayed due to environment and land acquisition issues.

The company, which generates all its electricity from coal and gas at present, had announced its foray in hydro with the 800 MW Koldam project in Himachal Pradesh in 2000. The captive coal mining venture was announced in 2003 to reduce dependence on public sector supplier Coal India Ltd.

The company has informed the Power Ministry that it was still awaiting necessary land acquisition notifications from the Coal Ministry for Chatti-Bariatu, Kerandari, Dulanga and Talaipalli coal blocks, for which it had applied about an year ago, official sources said.

NTPC consumes more than 110 million tons of coal annually and had planned to start mining from its first block Pakri- Barwadih in Jharkhand by December this year. It is targeting to produce 50 million tons a year by 2017, by when it intends to almost treble the power generation capacity to 75,000 MW.

Besides, its 800 MW Koldam project - hit by repeated landslides - is expected to be delayed by at least nine months, according to Central Electricity Authority (CEA). The first unit of the 4x200 MW project was scheduled for commissioning in November next year. CEA has stated that due to hill slides implementation of dam filling work, the most critical activity of the project, has been delayed.

Till August, only 50,000 cubic meters of the dam has been filled, as against the total required quantity of six lakh cubic meters, it said. However, the Authority has asked NTPC to achieve financial progress for the project on time as all other activities are progressing well.

According to sources, Power Secretary Anil Razdan has asked NTPC Ltd to prepare a good design that would take into account the soil conditions on both sides of diversion tunnel.

The company's another hydro project, 600 MW Loharinag Pala in Uttarakhand, is also expected to commence operations six months behind time due to land acquisition and rehabilitation problems.

"There were some initial problems because of delay in acquisition of land. However, they have been suitably addressed and the work is now progressing well," the sources said. CEA would shortly submit its detailed report on the Uttarakhand project, they said.

NTPC, the country's biggest generating company, has 26 power plants with a total installed capacity of 27,904 MW. It seeks to become a 75,000 MW company by 2017.

Meanwhile, the company's efforts to put up a 500 MW plant in Sri Lanka may also be affected as that country's government has suggested an alternate site.

"A port has to be developed near the site to service the requirement of the power plant. The Sri Lankan government has agreed to develop the port," the sources said.

Progress in setting up a power plant in Nigeria has also been slow due to change of government in the African nation. Razdan has asked NTPC to post a senior person in Nigeria to liaison with the Indian Embassy and the Nigerian Government, they said.

Bajaj ups production of new 125 cc bike in northen Uttarakhand.


NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Bajaj Auto Ltd, India's No. 2 motorbike maker, said it is raising production of its new 125 cc motorbike to 75,000 units a month from November.

Bajaj has sold 65,000 units of the XCD bike since its launch in early September, and the company is "rapidly ramping up its capacity" from 50,000 units a month to meet the growing demand, it said in a statement released over the weekend.

Bajaj had earlier said it would raise capacity beyond 50,000 units a month from December or January, when it started making the bike at its plant in northern Uttarakhand.
Bajaj has said the 125 cc bike was aimed at weaning customers from its 100 cc bikes, which compete in an extremely price-sensitive segment dominated by leader Hero Honda Motors Ltd.

ALL in race for a bigger CV ride
(Uttarakhand news in red below).
 
Rabin Ghosh | Wednesday, 31 October , 2007, 08:43 
   
Ashok Leyland, the country's second-largest commercial vehicle (CV) manufacturer, has set a target of improving its market share in the truck and bus segment from 29 per cent now to over 33 per cent in three years. The Rs 7,000 crore company is increasing focus on exports, spare parts, and engine trading in a bid to beat cyclicity in its core business.

 

Managing director R Seshasayee told analysts on Tuesday, the company would achieve a 10 per cent operating margin for the whole year. Margin levers like price hikes (2 per cent hike implemented earlier this month), better cost management (operating cost has come down by 2 per cent over 2 years), and softening of some key raw material prices are expected to aid margin expansion, he said.

The company is also confident of a revival in CV off-take during the second half so as to achieve a 90,000 unit sale by March for the whole year, 16 per cent more than what it had sold last fiscal. This means, it will have to sell about 53,000 units of trucks and buses between October and March, as against the 40,000-odd sold in April-September, representing a 5 per cent decline in volume year-on-year.

Truck sales declined by 25 per cent, though a strong performance by buses helped limit the slide.

"The STU (state transport undertaking) order book is comfortable. Private passenger segment grew 20 per cent in the first half of the year and we expect the trend to continue. We have a 53 per cent market share in the segment. Also, the drop in truck in South (Ashok Leyland's home turf) is lower than all India and during the first half of the year, we have increased our market share by four percentage points here. We also expect this trend to continue. Then, there is increased focus on defence and exports," chief financial officer K Sridharan said.

Ashok Leyland is moving towards reducing its dependence on the highly cyclical CV business, which is currently in a bear grip owing to factors like increased interest rates. The non-cyclical defence, exports, engine trading, and spare parts businesses account for 18 per cent of its revenues, which the company wishes to take to 30 per cent. In engine trading, it aims to double volumes in two years. Exports are expected to double in three years.

The company has lined up capital expenditure worth Rs 4,000 crore over the next three years, which would see its capacity more than double to 1,84,000 units per annum from 84,000 units currently. It is setting up a 50,000 units per annum greenfield capacity in Uttarakhand, which would entail fiscal benefits to the tune of Rs 75,000-100,000 per vehicle for the company.
The company would raise the funds for expansion through internal accruals and debt, and does not plan to go for equity dilution.

As for Avia, the Czech-truck maker it acquired last year, Seshasayee said it was expected to manufacture 3,500 units this fiscal and was exploring some large new markets like Russia and Iran. With increase in volumes, Avia's margins are expected to improve, too.
 

दूरदर्शन का प्रसारण समय एक घंटे बढ़ाNov 01, 02:43 am

देहरादून। प्रदेश के निवासियों को दूरदर्शन पर अब अपने प्रदेश के बारे में और अधिक जानकारी मिल सकेगी। दूरदर्शन पर एक नवंबर से देहरादून दूरदर्शन के प्रसारण समय में एक घंटे की बढ़ोतरी कर दी गई है। इस संबंध में दूरदर्शन महानिदेशक नई दिल्ली ने अपनी स्वीकृति देहरादून केंद्र को भेज दी है।

देहरादून दूरदर्शन के निदेशक तारादत्त सती ने बताया कि क्षेत्रीय जनता की मांग को देखते हुए एक नवंबर से देहरादून दूरदर्शन से सोमवार से शुक्रवार तक सायं पांच बजे से सात बजे तक दो घंटे तक क्षेत्रीय कार्यक्रमों का प्रसारण किया जाएगा। शनिवार और रविवार को साढ़े छह बजे से आधे घंटे का ही कार्यक्रम प्रसारित किया जाएगा। शेष समय में राष्ट्रीय चैनल के कार्यक्रम एवं लखनऊ केंद्र के कार्यक्रमों का ही प्रसारण किया जाएगा। गौरतलब है कि अभी तक देहरादून दूरदर्शन केंद्र से सोमवार से शुक्रवार तक छह से सात तथा शनिवार व रविवार को साढ़े छह बजे से आधे घंटे के कार्यक्रम प्रसारित किए जाते थे। श्री शर्मा ने बताया कि अब क्षेत्रीय कार्यक्रमों के प्रसारण पर जोर दिया जाएगा। अभी तक कृषि और स्वास्थ्य से संबंधित कार्यक्रमों का ही प्रसारण केंद्र से किया जा रहा था। लेकिन अब युवाओें व महिलाओं के लिए भी कार्यक्रमों का प्रसारण व समाचारों का भी प्रसारण किया जाएगा।