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IVRCL Infra bullish on BOT road projects

2014-12-29T11:19:00.002-08:00

IVRCL Infrastructure and Projects Ltd said it has received a Rs 1,550 crore BOT (Built Operate Transfer) road project in Madhya Pradesh from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). The concession will be for 25 years and the project will be completed in 30 months.

“The 155-km long road project will be executed by a special purpose vehicle owned by IVR Prime. The road construction will be taken up by IVRCL Infra,” said Mr E. Sudhir Reddy, the chairman of IVRCL Group.

“With this, IVR Prime has BOT projects — confirmed and lowest bidder — worth Rs 10,000 crore,” he said adding that the company expects to win six BOT projects by this year end.

The project, which is a part of National Highway 59, involves design, engineering, construction, development, finance, operation and maintenance of the road that runs between Indore and Ahmedabad.

Mr Reddy said that the debt-equity of 5:1 would be used to fund the project. “The equity component will be raised through internal accruals and raising debt will not be difficult for us,” Mr Reddy said.

Following the road transport and highways minister, Mr Kamal Nath’s target to build 20 km road every day by April 2010, the NHAI has put the process of awarding contracts on the fast track. “We are currently doing 9 km a day and would be in a position to scale up to 20 km a day by April-May 2010,” Mr Nath had said recently.

Recently, the government had approved road projects worth Rs 6,152 crore in five states for upgrading nearly 562 km of four-lane highways into six lanes.

Mr Nath had also coined the idea of issuing infrastructure bonds to raise money from non-resident Indians on the lines of the Resurgent India Bonds issued in 1998 and the India Millennium Bonds issued in 2000.

ISO specification for ETC systems

2014-12-29T11:18:00.002-08:00

A newly published ISO Technical Specification harmonises the requirements for electronic fee collection (EFC) systems on roads subject to toll charges. It will facilitate mobility between different road networks and help to ensure reliable data collection and correct charging.

ISO/TS 12813:2009, “Electronic fee collection – Compliance check communication for autonomous systems”, will help to ensure the optimal use of on-board equipment (OBE) interfacing with satellite positioning to collect the data required for charging for the use of roads in an autonomous mode, without relying on dedicated road-side infrastructure.

The standard defines the requirements for using dedicated short range communication (DSRC) between on-board equipment and an interrogator for the purpose of checking compliance of road use with a local toll regime. This will enable checking of non-national vehicles and thus enable cross border enforcement of non-compliant vehicles.

The scope of the Electronic Fee Collection (EFC) standards relates to EFC charging systems and information exchanges over the interfaces. The standards focus on the interface between the on-board and the roadside equipment, but also deal with the ‘Information data flows between operators’. The standards primarily cover EFC systems based on Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC); Cellular Network / Global Navigation Satellite Systems (CN/GNSS), and Integrated Circuit Card (ICC) technologies.

The standards suite includes not only ‘requirements’ but also associated test procedures, in order to support conformity evaluation of EFC on-board and roadside equipment. It also includes security guidelines that can be useful in the preparation or evaluation of security requirements.

ISO/TS 12813:2009, Electronic fee collection – Compliance check communication for autonomous systems, was jointly developed by ISO technical committee ISO/TC 204, Intelligent Transport systems and CEN/TC 278, Road transport and traffic telematics.

Toll Industry has had a few years of maturity. What is the summary of exceptions from Toll Collection System from a concessionaire’s point of view.

2014-12-29T11:17:00.003-08:00

(This needs an in-depth analysis on broad parameters. However I have tried to analyze few problems associated with toll roads.)

Introduction: with a need a build good infrastructure and lack funds available to finance these Highway project government has undertaken to built highway on Public Private Partnership either toll based or annuity based.
The private developers who bids and undertake constructions of Highway on toll basis needs to implement a through pertinent “risk” management system with the help of the government to mitigate all the risks that come with development.

To understand the various consequence of “tolled” roads there needs to through study to undertaken which is not my purview at the moment. Hence I dwell over some of these consequences based my exposer these projects.

Toll based Highways:
The idea of “Toll based” highways was imported into India from experiences of others countries like Europe, Malaysia or North America. The model “Concession Agreement” was drafted by the Government to suit India needs.

The toll categories of roads are those wherein there are sufficient traffic which can be tolled by the Concessionaire and recoup the investment made him and also make profit. In the event there are not enough tollable traffic to recoup the investment made, it will be offered on annuity basis or with VGP (Viability gap funding) by the government.

The tolled based roads wherein the Government grants private developer specific rights to design, finance, construct operate and maintain the roads. The developer called “Concessionaire” develops covers the investment costs and carry commercial risks since he relays on operation revenue from the tolls remunerated. At the end of the concessional period the road reverted back to government at no extra charges. However if the estimated revenue does not materialize during Concession period the Concessionaire may have to negotiate the concession period (as in other countries) which is yet to happen in India as we are just starting!

In south America there is method of bidding known as “Least Present Value” wherein the winning bidder is the one who asks for “smallest Net Present Value” and period of the concession period ends when the present value of revenue equal to winning bid. This model has not been tried in India.

Risk management in “Toll based” Concession

In the present circumstances the Concessionaire undertakes risks to constructs road which is generally divides normally into three parts:

Certainty – decision maker know exactly the outcome
Uncertainty – here the decision maker does not know the risks due to non availability of any data
Risks – are those which can be determined by statistical terms and can be analyzed but it differs from uncertainty

In risk management all the risks are quantified and analyzed and decision taken by the Concessionaire to mitigate the same by way of disciplined approach to critical situation

Developmental risk involves “Land Acquisitions” needed for the project. This is one of the biggest risk faced by the Indian developers as most of the times project gets delayed due non-availability of Land. NHAI does not meet the contractual requirements specified in the Concession agreement thereby causing unnecessary hardship to concessionaire. This risk falls under “uncertainty” which can not be quantified

Financial Risk: Soon after award of Project, the Concessionaire needs to raise the necessary capital required for execution project

There are two major risks involved:

Ability to raise the finance and make financial close as required by the Concession agreement.
High interest rate during the currency of concession period (due to floating interest charged by lenders) – mitigation of this risk in extremely important).

Construction risks

Whether the construction undertaken by the Concessionaire himself or by other contractor there are many risk involved

Poor performance of the contractor
Different site condition which normally experience contractor many not have thought off which is problematic and end up in high cost due additional items of work to be executed.
High price escalation of all the inputs of construction – Example: steel pricing going through roof last year.

All above risk has to be born by the Concessionaire which needs proper approach in the initial stages itself

Operational risks
Operation risk involves mainly the following

State support agreement – needs to signed by the concerned state and they shall support the collection of tolls which important to the concessionaire. NHAI who are promoters of the project should take full responsibility in getting the agreement signed with Concessionaire as Concessionaire can not exert any pressure on the states

Toll Level: the estimated toll level uncertainty during pre-bidding stages can lead to inaccuracies in revenue estimation which the Concessionaire has based his bid. Hence this risk needs to shared by the NHAI

The traffic volume projected in financial model may not materialize as it completely depends on economic growth projected during pre-bidding stage

Any fall in traffic volume will automatically bring down the IRR value projected. Expert estimate that 10% drop in volume of traffic will result in reduction of 1-7% – 1.9% percent reduction in IRR.

Toll collection
The Concession agreement does give any standard specification for the installation of tolling equipment. This has resulted in haphazard manner the tolling equipment being installed by the different Concessionaire. This needs to change. For example a RFID card issued at New Delhi should also hold good down south. By such an arrangement the road user can travel effortlessly any ware in India.

The technology used by the Concessionaire needs to be streamlined on all India basis for all Concessionaire.

Toll fee: The price escalation of “toll/Fee” charged by the Concessionaire is based on all India WPI index. This is incorrect as in some states it may be very high. In my opinion there should be “Toll Regulator” on all India basis to regulate toll based on each state WPI or any other base model

HTMS: Here there is no comprehensive approach. For example the “variable message system” is limited to one project length only! This also needs an all India approach.

Suggestion: at the moment there are so many “Toll” based road are in operation and also on the horizon. All the toll based roads owners are “Special purposed vehicle” promoted by the concessionaire.

So why not a “over the counter” stock listing be arranged of these SPV and listed in Stock exchanges which can also traded in F&O section. I am sure this arrangement will automatically will mitigate many risks and also give scope for improvement in roads as the Concessionaire would like increase the traffic by enhancing the many amenities for road users.

Thanks for taking time for reading this articles.

L&T arm signs Rs 26bn concession agreement with NHAI

2014-12-29T11:15:00.006-08:00

Larsen & Toubro Ltd. said on Wednesday that its subsidiary L&T Infrastructure Development Projects Ltd. (L&TIDPL) has signed a Concession Agreement worth Rs 26bn with the NHAI.

The agreement with NHAI is for the four-laning of a 244-km stretch on the NH 14 between Beawar and Pindwara in Rajasthan.

The project will be undertaken on BOT DBFO (design, built, finance and operate) basis, with a concession period of 23 years.

The estimated project cost is Rs 26bn, and the project is scheduled to be completed within a period of 30 months.

The Concessionaire (L&T BPP Tollway Pvt. Ltd - a SPV of L&TIDPL) is entitled to collect toll from the users of the highway during the concession period on completion of the four-laning of the road.

The project corridor is one of the main evacuation routes for traffic from Kandla and Mundra ports, destined to hinterlands spread out in Northern India, extending to Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab and beyond.

The project corridor falls within the proposed Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and the four-laning of the 244 km stretch of NH-14 within this industrial corridor is expected to accelerate the development and growth prospects in this region.

With this project, L&T currently has 16 projects in its BOT Roads Portfolio. Out of this, 7 are presently in operation phase, 8 in construction phase.

This project is entering the development phase, thus translating into a length of 6700 lane km and a total length of 1461 km, and a total project book size of Rs 158bn.

NHAI plans Rs 5,000 crore tax-free bonds

2014-12-29T11:13:00.001-08:00

National Highways Authority of India plans to launch a tax-free bonds issue to mop up about Rs 5,000 crore by December, an official said.

KOLKATA: National Highways Authority of India plans to launch a tax-free bonds issue to mop up about Rs 5,000 crore by December, an official said. “The process has already begun. We will soon mandate a merchant banker for the same,” Satish Chandra, member (finance) at the state-owned autonomous agency, told ET.

The highways authority, or NHAI, which is responsible for all the national highways in the country, has already notified top merchant bankers and roped in rating agencies Crisil BSE -1.14 %, Care and Brickwork Ratings India for the proposed issue. Delhi-based M V Kini & Co will be its legal advisor.The proposed issue will be subject to statutory approvals.An NHAI official said the money raised will be used for future investment needs as the agency currently has some Rs 4,000 crore of cash in its books. “We do not need funds immediately for two reasons: we still have some cash in hand and execution work on several projects — some 11-12 of them — is yet to take off due to economic slowdown,” the official said.

A person familiar with the development, however, said the highways ministry is not yet convinced about the proposed issue and has sought an explanation from NHAI. Last year, the agency had failed to issue Rs 10,000 crore of bonds, though the same was sanctioned.

Incidentally, ongoing tax-free bonds of state owned entities India Infrastructure Finance Company and Power Finance Company are yet to catch retail fancy. Both the issues are yet to achieve the retail subscription target of 40% of the overall issue size. The issues are offering a few basis points lower rate of interest in select maturities compared with the earlier ones.

Also, with a gush of issues, including those of Rural Electrification Corporation BSE -0.68 %and National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, having already hit the market, investor appetite appears to have waned.

A market analyst said that only higher rate of interest can now get retail investors back into tax-saving bonds this fiscal year.

Source-http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Now, get toll plaza info on smartphone

2014-12-29T11:12:00.000-08:00

New Delhi: Now road users can check whether a toll plaza is operating legally and how much they should pay at each toll plaza. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has launched a portal a mobile-based application that will help commuters locate all toll plazas on a stretch and charges payable for each category of vehicle – car, jeep, truck or bus.
Suppose one plans to travel between Delhi and Mumbai, he just needs to enter names of the origin and destination to get details of all toll plazas.
A government official said the website – www.nhaitis.org – is already functional and information related to 255 toll plazas has been uploaded in the system. Details of other 30 plazas will be uploaded in the next two weeks, sources said.
“Commuters can also access updated information about concessions available for local and frequent users on any toll plaza so that the toll operators can’t fleece them. They can get details of the facilities available near a toll plaza, contact numbers for emergency services, local police station and nearest hospital,” said an official.
To make the information accessible while on the move, the highway authority said that people can also get all these details simply by sending an SMS. All that they need is to download an application (app) on their android smartphones. The app will provide details of all toll plazas within 100 km range.
Overcharging, misbehaviour by toll operators and long wait at toll plazas are some of the major irritants for road-users. Moreover, though it’s mandatory that a big hoarding at every plaza must display the applicable toll charges for each type of vehicle, private developers often fail to put them up. The new IT initiative is likely to address these concerns.

Source-http://epaper.timesofindia.com/

TRAFFIC CONGESTION : A Road-User Perspective

2014-12-29T11:10:00.002-08:00

These days, everyone is talking about creation of Smart Cities. So what has this got to do with traffic congestion on roads? A “Smart City” promises its citizens a very high quality of life by planned usage of resources – physical infrastructure included – to create an eco-system of sustainable economic development, living, governance, mobility, environment, and so on. Towards this objective, a Smart City is expected to deploy automated controls to achieve this. Smart transportation is a key enabler for enhanced mobility in Smart Cities.

How often have you got stuck in traffic while travelling to catch a flight, train, to get emergency medical assistance or to attend to that urgent meeting or for an interview? Something that each one of us in cities experience frequently, and are not too pleased doing so!

The feelings of the hapless traveler in such situations would most likely be something like:
 Ugh ! Why so many vehicles on the road ? Can’t this be controlled?
 Why can’t we have wider and/or enough alternative roads for smooth travel?
 These slow moving vehicles should keep off the main roads
 Could the police not tame these reckless drivers ?
 Parking on the roads is a curse !
 Shops and other encroachments on roads are eating away the road space and so on
Such situations do reflect the utter chaos faced during busy traffic hours, and scream for something to be urgently done to mitigate the road users’ travails. For only then would the dreams of achieving a “Smart City” status for our cities be realized.

From a road user perspective, managing such situation requires either reduction of vehicular traffic volumes or freeing up available space on the road. One would readily conclude that this approach would lead us to the much-needed salvation from the demon called “congestion”.

A closer view of this perception, while endorsing it prima facie, calls for a deep introspection and brings a none-too-easy “to do” tasks. A sample wish list would include, but not be limited to:
 Restrict the number of new vehicles that hit the city roads daily
 Enforce parking space availability for people buying cars
 Strictly handle the menace of haphazard parking on roads
 Create more parking space – even using multi-storeyed and/or underground structures
 Make public transport available, safe, frequent, affordable
 Discourage use of personal vehicles by levying hefty taxes
 Plan business and work areas (office/factory/etc.) to minimize travel
 Encourage car-pooling (incentives, tax exemptions, concessional parking charges, etc.)

The Author-Mr Sudipto chakarvaty

Source : internet.

Govt’s plan of limiting toll collection faces resistance

2014-12-29T11:08:00.001-08:00

Currently, the toll rates are typically brought down to 40% of the ongoing toll rate after the end of a concession period. Photo: Mint New Delhi: Roads minister Nitin Gadkari’s promise of limiting toll collection to recover project cost is facing resistance on grounds that it will add to the fiscal burden of the government. Officials in the road ministry and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have pitched to make a presentation to the minister to explain why the proposal is not feasible. “We have asked the minister to let us explain why stopping toll collection after recovering the project cost may not be desirable,” said an official who did not want to be identified. “Money collected through toll after the end of the concession period is used to maintain national highway projects.

Usually these are good stretches and cost of maintenance is high and there aren’t enough funds with the government to ensure maintenance of these stretches without the toll money,” he added. Currently, the toll rates are typically brought down to 40% of the ongoing toll rate after the end of a concession period. Concession period is the duration for which a developer is given the contract for tolling a road project for recovering the cost of construction and maintaining it, and typically ranges between 20 and 30 years. “The tolling policy is very vague. It needs to be revisited for many reasons like defining what constitutes the cost of construction and why some stretches are tolled and some not,” said a second official, who too requested anonymity.

“However, the toll that is collected after the concession period is used for maintaining and cross-subsiding other national highway stretches that cannot be tolled. If this is removed where will the money for maintaining the national highway network come from?” Gadkari first spoke of stopping the collection of toll once the cost of a project is recovered in the Lok Sabha on 14 August. Addressing a conference on 100 days of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on 15 September, Gadkari reiterated his keenness to go ahead with the proposal. The remarks come in the backdrop of several instances of protests against toll collection.

Road ministry officials are exploring alternative, acceptable solutions for resource mobilization that could at least address the resentment of the local residents. “One of the suggestions is to toll only the commercial traffic after the cost of the project is recovered as anyway 80% of the toll collection comes from the commercial traffic. However, all this is at an initial stage,” the first official said. The National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules formulated in 2008 are in force currently.

“The tolling strategy needs to be relooked at, keeping in mind the issue of the local users. More importantly the issue of collecting toll until perpetuity for stretches without providing an alternative free route to users who may not wish to pay also needs to be addressed,” said Pranavant, senior director at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt. Ltd, an audit and consulting firm. He uses a single name. The move, when first suggested, had been criticized by the industry too on grounds that it could make it difficult for the developers to access bank finance.

Source:live mint, indiantollways.

12 Computer (PC) Tricks You Should Try Right Now

2014-12-29T11:06:00.001-08:00

Computers have simplified our life to a great extent. Things that were impossible earlier can now be completed instantly thanks to computers. However, this does not mean that a PC is all work and no play.

Here are some of the best tricks you can try out on your Windows based computer.

1. Have fun with Notepad
If you think that Notepad is just a basic text editor, then, you will be amazed by its capabilities. You can use Notepad to create everything from personalized logs to harmless viruses that are incredibly annoying. Go see this post to know just how useful Notepad is.

2. Command Prompt too has some tricks up its sleeves
If you think that the Command prompt is a boring old program that no one uses, you are making a huge mistake. It can be used for everything from watching ASCII Star Wars to making folders that you cannot delete. See this post to know about all the cool stuff you can do with the Windows Command Prompt.

3. Use Keyboard Shortcuts to get work done in no time
If you are tired of having to alternate between your mouse and keyboard to operate your Windows computer, you would love to know these really useful keyboard shortcuts which greatly increase your speed and efficiency. See this post for details.

4. Make your computer speak what you type
You can use your PC's built in features and some VBScript magic to create a simple program that will make your computer speak whatever you input to it. Enter the right words and you could imitate a real conversation. Head over to this post to talk with your PC.

5. Make your computer greet you every time you start Windows
A simple modification in the previous trick will make your computer welcome you in its own mechanical voice every time you log onto Windows. This is achieved by placing the VBS script responsible for making your computer talk in the Start up folder. Read this post to have a computer said welcome.

6. Find your computer's gender
Want to know if your PC is a male or a female? Simple. Try the previous trick to know if your computer is a 'he' or a 'she'. On a serious note, this depends upon the voice you have selected in Microsoft Text to Speech options.

7. Lock Folders with password
If you have important personal files that you do not want other people to see, you can hide them in a password protected folder to prevent unwanted users from seeing them. Go see this post to hide your personal files effectively.

8. Change your Processor's name

If you are bored of your old processor and want a new one with a staggering name, you will definitely want to see this trick which allows you to change its name to something extraordinary to make your PC special.

9. Make a Keyboard Disco
You can use some VBScript coding to create a live disco on your keyboard by making the LED lights flash alternately. See this post to know how your keyboard can turn into a disco.

10. Recover permanently deleted files in Windows
If you have ever deleted a file in Windows that you did not want to and now want to recover it, you would definitely want to know about some free tools to recover your deleted files easily.

11. Use your Keyboard as Mouse.
You know you can use your mouse as keyboard using the On-screen keyboard utility. What if I tell you that it is also possible to do the reverse? Just read this post to see how.

12. Disable USB ports to prevent others from taking your data
Ever wanted to disable your USB ports to prevent others from using their flash drives on your PC? This post explains how to do just that with a simple registry trick. Do note that disabling USB ports will also disable your USB connected peripheral devices.

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