India Developing, but still a long way to go

[Water Car Engineer]

The Raintree Park township - Andhra Pradesh - phase 1

 

[Water Car Engineer]

Celeste Towers - 35 fl x 2 - U/C - Delhi

Saket Sriyam - 25 fl x 1 + 15 fl x 1 - U/C - Hyderabad

Ramky Towers - U/C - Andhra Pradesh

 

[Water Car Engineer]

Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences

manjeera commercial

manjeera trinity corporate

manjeera trinity residential

Some Hyderabad projects

 

[Water Car Engineer]

SMR Vinay Fountainhead

ICICI building

dlf it sez

 

[Soumya_india]

Coming to Amritsar, the Pod Car

Coming to Amritsar, the Pod Car

Amritsar: ULTra Fairwood, an engineering company in India, announced this week that it reached an agreement with the Punjab government to build a personal rapid transit system in Amritsar, an Indian city of 1.5 million about 40 miles from the Pakistani metropolis of Lahore. The system would be based on the pod-car technology of ULTra Global PRT, which recently completed a proof-of-concept at Heathrow Airport in London.

Fraser Brown, managing director of ULTra Global PRT, said in a telephone interview that the system would consist of 200 automated electric pods, roughly 10 times the number operating at Heathrow, and would shuttle an average of 100,000 passengers per day over 3.3 kilometers, or roughly two miles, of track. Among the route's seven station stops would be the city's principal bus station, the railroad terminal and the Golden Temple, a major Sikh shrine.

Mr. Brown would not disclose the price of a fare, saying only that passengers would pay a comparable price to that of other modes of public transportation.

Construction on the system would begin in 2012, Mr. Brown said, with an eye toward starting service in late 2014. Aside from the larger scope and complexity of the system, the difference in climate between London and Amritsar would require alterations to the pod cars and their dedicated guideways.

"We are looking at the pods operating in temperatures of 50 Celsius [122 Fahrenheit] and in monsoon rain conditions," said Mr. Brown. "This has required design changes to the track to cope with water runoff and a revamp in the pod air-conditioning system." The car will also be redesigned to carry six passengers, rather than four with luggage, as it is configured at Heathrow.


He said that any changes to accommodate local conditions would not impact the fundamentals of the system.

"Besides the Heathrow proof-of-concept, we have done a lot of behind-the-scenes simulation and testing in this area," Mr. Brown said. "We are absolutely confident the control and safety systems are scalable and robust." He also reiterated that the safety system had received regulatory signoff in Britain.

Amritsar is the host of as many as 500,000 Sikh pilgrims on major holidays who visit the Golden Temple. Prompted by concerns about exhaust fumes damaging the building's facade, which was built in the early 17th century, the government has banned nonessential motor vehicle traffic within a one- to two-kilometer radius of the shrine. Pilgrims consequently must walk or hire pedal-powered rickshaws to reach the temple. Mr. Brown expects the electric-power pod-car system to accommodate up to 35 percent of these visitors.

With private investment, ULTra Fairwood will design and build the system for the Punjab government and operate it as a concession under a 30-year agreement. Fairwood would license the pod-car technology from ULTra Global PRT in a franchise-style agreement, according to Mr. Brown. His company, which is based in Britain, would receive payment for consulting services, which he estimated at 2 million pounds, or roughly $3.1 million, over the next two years. ULTra Global would also receive an estimated 5.4 million pounds over the 30-year concession agreement, representing a share of the fares collected. He declined to disclose the projected costs to build and operate the system, but he estimated that the system would recoup its costs to investors after five years of operation.

 

[luckych]

In 20 years, India among top 3 countries for us: Marriott International COO

India will see enormous growth in travel and tourism in the next 10 to 15 years, says Mr Arne Sorenson, President and Chief Operating Officer, Marriott International Inc. “Your Incredible India campaign is incredibly brilliant,” he said in his brief 15-minute interview to Business Line. He was on a whirlwind trip to India recently, for the first time after he took over as the company's COO a couple of years ago. He is also set to become the company's top executive once its long-time CEO Mr J.W. Bill Marriott Jr steps down in the next three months.

Excerpts from the interview:

Are the debt crises in Europe and the US taking their toll on hotel occupancy across the world? How's the hotel industry doing in India?

Markets are growing, perhaps, at slower paces in the US and Asia Pacific. Europe is the hardest market to predict – for now. But as I see it, by and large, business travel takes place, more meetings happen than in the last two-three years. We see comparable year-over-year sales across the globe are up in high single digits over the same time last year.

And specifically, in India, there was a growth of 15 per cent in supply (of hotel rooms) in 2010-11; demand grew by 17 per cent during the same period. We expect corporate demand to grow even faster in the months to come, as the sector resumed travelling.

As we see it, the global economy is still growing, but at a slower rate.

But, it has shrunk inbound tourism to India. Hasn't that affected your business here?

We are doing pretty okay. For us, almost 75 per cent of the business in India comes from domestic travellers. We are the fifth largest hotel chain in India – in terms of number of rooms. At the moment, we have 15 hotels here and 45 more in the pipeline.

More and more global hotel brands are increasingly looking at setting up hotels in India. Many have already made much progress. How is Marriott placed in the market here?

Our philosophy is to have one leading brand in each distinct segment of the marketplace. So in India, all our brands, from Ritz Carlton in the luxury space to Courtyard Marriott at the other end of the spectrum, are competing well with other brands in their respective categories. Our plan really is to grow with India.

In 20 years from now, India will be one of the top three countries we do business in. The country is bound to see enormous growth in travel and tourism.

Are you focusing only on the business travel segment or on the leisure segment too?

Though predominantly business, we will grow our leisure portfolio.

Marriott has been operating in India as an asset-light company. Would you invest in properties here?

No. Not in a big way. We recently formed a joint venture with SAMHI Hotels – in which we have a minority stake – to set up 15 Fairfield Inn hotels here. We have been an asset-light company not just in India, but globally… even in the US. Globally we have 3,500 properties. Of this, only eight are owned by us.

Is the tie-up exclusive?

No. We have tied up with a few other partners for Fairfield in India.

Where will the first Fairfield property be launched?

In the NCR.

Will your Fairfield in India be different from that in other parts of the world?

Yes. It will be different in India. Rooms will be bigger; they will have three F&B outlets and bigger public space. It will be a full-service hotel, and priced very competitively.

 

[Soumya_india]

NHAI says it can meet 20km a day target in next three years

NHAI says it can meet 20km a day target in next three years - Economy and Politics - livemint.com

Mumbai: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said it will achieve its target of building 20km of national highways a day in the next three years, as contracts being awarded this fiscal year will translate into that daily distance.

All these roads will be built as public-private partnerships, J.N. Singh, member (finance) of NHAI, told reporters in Mumbai on Monday.

“Out of a total 33 projects awarded, 20 fetched a premium” or higher than the estimated cost, Singh said. Such contract winners haven’t faced any hurdles in tying up funds, he said.

Set up in 1995, NHAI is an autonomous Union government agency responsible for the development, maintenance and management of national highways. NHAI awarded 3,360km of roads in 2009-10, 5,058km in 2010-11 and has more than 7,300km planned for this fiscal year.

NHAI is in the process of raising as much as Rs 10,000 crore by selling tax-free bonds starting 28 December to meet some of its funding requirements. SBI Capital Markets Ltd and AK Capital Services Ltd are managing the issue along with ICICI Securities Ltd and Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. Ltd.

J.N. Singh of NHAI talks about his organisation’s plans for the coming years and why they’ll soon be able to build 20 kilometres of roads everyday.

“Last fiscal, we awarded 5,000km of roads and this year 7,300-7,500km. We will be awarding at least 7,000km year-on-year starting from next fiscal. Though we are seeing some delays due to land acquisition and a shortage of civil engineers, there are no major concerns in executing national highway projects,” Singh said.

Singh said the award of roads has registered a growth of 42% in the current fiscal from a year earlier and NHAI plans to complete at least 2,400km of roads this year.

He said states including Maharashtra, West Bengal and Kerala have seen some delays in land acquisition, adding that these were “one-of-a-kind instances”. IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd announced last week that NHAI had cancelled the company’s Goa-Karnataka road project on account of the government agency’s inability to provide land for implementation of the project.

An investment banker, requesting anonymity, said NHAI will be on track to achieve the target of 20km a day as the government is supporting it in raising funds and land acquisition, and private companies are quoting a premium for securing the mandate to build roads.

Despite the economy slowing, NHAI has received record premiums for projects in the current year. The project to widen the 560km Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad stretch to six lanes fetched a premium of Rs 636 crore, subject to a 5% annual increase.

NHAI can achieve its 20km a day target over the next three years, Elara Securities (India) Pvt. Ltd had said in a June report. This depends, however, on the uninterrupted award of projects and ensuring that projects are brought fully on stream with a maximum lag of a year’s time, it said.

Singh of NHAI said that on an average, 20-30% of the land is yet to be acquired for building roads. In the current financial year, 7,800 hectares (ha) of land was acquired until November, compared with a total acquisition of 8,533ha in 2010-11 and 6,244ha in 2009-10.

 

[Abhishek_]

wasn't sure where to post it...help
Pehla Nasha -Natalie Di Luccio (Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar) - YouTube

 

[Filmmaker]

Ludhiana

 

[Filmmaker]

 

[IndoCarib]

 

[illusion8]

Unitech Grande Noida

---------- Post added at 11:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:12 PM ----------

Biswa Banga Shikhar (World Bengal Tower), Kolkata (Calcutta), India

 

[illusion8]

Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT), Gandhinagar, India

---------- Post added at 11:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:15 PM ----------

Trump Tower, Bangalore

 

[Tamil Arasan]

A nice project under construction, we need more such projects in which they try to harness energy from nature as much as possible, this are " LEED Gold certified green buildings", An award winning project in Asia Pacific Property Awards, part of 150 acre IT & R&D Campus, Campus already home to HCL Tech, Airtel, Nestle & Agilent Tech

Eco Tower

Evergreen Tower Lobby

Evergreen Tower West View

 

[DMLA]

India is all set to see a surge in number of super tall and tall buildings in the next decade.

from FT:

link: http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/12/23/chart-of-the-week-growing-taller/#axzz1hrdx0ZdH

The eleven are orchid hights, orchid crown, world one, minerva, palais royale, india bulls, namaste tower and trump tower

world one:

minerva:

orchid heights:

orchid crown:

palais royale:

namaste tower:

apart from the above buildings (under construction), there are 5 supertalls approved and 9 others proposed with mumbai, gandhinagar, hyderabad and delhi as the locations. The next 20 years will surely be a golden period of super tall construction in India!