3865 Villages connected with Roads in 33 months

by | Sep 29, 2006 | Rajasthan

This information was given in the presentation of the Public Works Department in the presence of the Chief Minister, Smt. Vasundhara Raje and the PWD Minister, Shri Rajendra Rathore here on Thursday.

The PWD Minister informed that Rajasthan was the leading state in the implementation of ‘Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Project’ in the country. He informed that the PWD Department had undertaken development works to the tune of Rs.3076 crores in the last more than 2 and half years, whereas works costing Rs. 1905 crores only had been undertaken in the five years of the previous government rule. He said that on an average Rs.1119 crores had been spent per year in the nearly three years of the present government, while Rs.381 crores per year on an average had been spent during the five year period of December, 1998 to November, 2003.

The Principal Secretary PWD Shri C.S. Rajan gave a detailed information about the achievements and the different activities of the PWD Department in the presentation. It was informed that a provision of undertaking works of Rs.2526 crores had been made by the department in the current financial year which was 42 percent more than the provision of the last year. He informed that against the provision of Rs.606 crores on road sector from state plan head this year, Rs. 332 crores had been spent upto August 2006, which was 53 percent of the annual provision. He informed that Rs.1100 crores were being spent under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Project’ this year.

Work relating to strengthening of 1053 kms. long roads under the Mega Highway Project First Phase was in progress in the state. This work would be completed by May, 2008. Under the second phase of the project strengthening of 1267 kms. long roads with an estimated cost of Rs.1258 crores would be undertaken. Sanction of Rs. 831 crores had been received for four projects out of the seven projects proposed under the scheme.

Keeping in view the safe and easy transport 57 bye-passes will be constructed under the Agenda 2008. Of this 28 bye-passes will be constructed under the mega highway project one, 53 under the mega highway project second

and 16 bye-passes under the NHDP. Besides 37 railway over bridges will be constructed, of which 11 will be constructed under mega highway project first, 10 under mega highway project second and 13 other railway over bridges have been sanctioned from the state plan head. Along with this 18 bridges will also be constructed on state highways and prominent district roads.

Rural connectivity roads will also be extended under the Agenda 2008. All villages having a population of more than 750 will be connected with road by March, 2007. Similarly villages with a population of more than 500 will be connected with road by December, 2007 and after that the desert and tribal villages having a population of more than 250 will be connected by road in the year 2008-09. The remaining 188 panchayat headquarters will be connected by roads upto December, 2008 and after that cent percent panchayat headquarters will be connected with road in the state.

Special scheme has also been formulated for proper maintenance and care of the roads constructed earlier. Over Rs. 307 crores had been spent on the improvement of 4000 km. roads which had been left from the state highways and the prominent district level roads for improvement. Similarly Rs. 242 crores had been spent on the improvement of 6065 kms. rural roads, out of the 12000 km. roads left for improvement. Cement-concrete roads will be constructed on state highways and important district roads passing through all 183 urban bodies in the state under the Agenda 2008.

Over Rs. 20.50 crores had been sanctioned earlier for the repair of roads affected by floods in different areas of the state. The Chief Minister have also sanctioned Rs.35 crores besides this amount and now a provision of Rs.55.50 crores have been made for the repair of roads in the flood affected areas. This repair work is in progress.

It is to be noted that a network of 1.69 lakh kms. roads have been laid in the state, of which the National Highway and the State Highway roads was only 14.5 percent, which bear 85 percent share of the total transport. Nearly 52 percent villages had been connected with roads upto November, 2003 and now 62 percent villages have been connected with roads upto August, 2006 in the state. Over 75 percent villages will be connected by bitumen roads by December, 2007 in the state. (DIPR)

HELICOPTER CRASH AT NASIK

by | Sep 29, 2006 | India News

Friday, September 29, 2006 17:43 IST Ministry of Defence One Cheetah helicopter of Army Aviation crashed at Nasik Aviation Base in Maharashtra today at approximately 1407 hrs. The helicopter had got airborne from Nasik Aviation Base and was on a routine...

WWF staff missing in Nepal

by | Sep 24, 2006 | World News

The Shree Air helicopter had 20 passengers and four crew. The passengers were on their way back from a conservation site at Ghunsa, in the far eastern part of the country, some 500km from the capital, Kathmandu.

Seven WWF staff are among the missing, three from WWF-Nepal, two from WWF-US and two from WWF-UK. Other passengers included government officials and representatives of other non-governmental organizations.

“We hope that all on board will be rescued safely,” WWF International’s Director General James Leape said today.

“Our thoughts are with our missing colleagues and their families and WWF is doing everything it can to help the government of in its search for the helicopter.’’

Amul to use Natural Vanilla in Ice-Creame

by | Sep 23, 2006 | Business

Anand, Gujarat, India, Friday, September 22, 2006 — (Business Wire India) — Amul, the market leader in ice-creams in the country, has launched the Vanilla Royale Ice-cream using pure natural vanilla extract. Amul is the first Indian brand to use natural vanilla in ice-cream. Pure natural vanilla is an extremely complex flavour from the fruit of an orchid called vanilla planifolia. The major flavour component of vanilla beans is natural vanillin which appears as a white crystal line material on well cured aged beans.

The Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., which markets the products of 2.9 million milk producers of Gujarat under the brand name Amul, has taken this initiative to help 1500 vanilla farmers of Kochi who are engaged in procuring and processing quality natural vanilla as per international standards. These vanilla farmers have joined together to form the Vanilla India Producers Co. Ltd., Ernakulam.

Amul’s Vanilla Royale is available in an attractive 500 ml paper cup priced at Rs. 45/- all over the country. It stays fresh for 12 months from the date of packaging when stored at minus 18 degree Celsius.

Tech Committee for fogging in Raj.

by | Sep 23, 2006 | Rajasthan

The Medical and Health Minister, Dr. Digambar Singh, while reviewing the steps taken to prevent the seasonal diseases at a meeting held here on Thursday, informed that the committee would submit its report in three days on technical aspects relating to density of mosquitoes, their behaviour and role in spread of the disease, the use of fogging to control them and the affect of fogging on the health of the people in Jaipur city.

He informed that the Joint Director, Jaipur Zone Dr. B.R. Meena has included in the committee as public health specialist, Senior Specialist (Medicine) Dr. Mahendra Surana as Medical Specialist, Joint Director, Entomology, Government of India Dr. K.K. Mathur as Pesticides Specialist. The Assistant Director, Entomology of the State Government, Dr. B.S. Rathore has also been included in the committee.

Dr. Singh said that if according to the report of the committee, fogging would be considered useful than pests would be controlled through fogging first of all in the Jaipur city. After that committees would be constituted in other urban areas of the state and arrangements for fogging be made according to their recommendations. He said that before undertaking fogging the general public would be educated about the precautions to be taken during the fogging.

It was informed in the meeting that under the ‘house to house ‘ survey campaign, 53 teams had undertaken a survey of 1769 houses in seven zones of Jaipur city. Of these spray activities was taken up in 147 houses and anti larva activities in 711 houses, while coolers and tanks were emptied in 1619 houses. The teams also collected blood samples of 152 patients suffering from fever and not a single malaria positive case was found.

The Principal Secretary Medical and Health, Shri Sudhir Bhargava, Director Public Health Dr. V.K. Kaushik, Director Family Welfare Dr.S.P. Yadav, Director AIDS Dr. Satish Kumar and Additional Director Rural Health Dr. M.L. Jain were present in the meeting.