todays news in indias top magazine

Railways Needs Rs 5 Lakh Cr For Infra Push: Stanchart

The railways will need an investment of Rs 5 lakh crore in new assets over the next five years, providing business opportunity to the infrastructure companies, according to a Standard Chartered report.

The railways aims to increase the share of commercial traffic from 32% to 74%, for which it has to build special corridors, modernise infrastructure, increase the average speed of freight trains and build logistic parks. Such projects, the report said, would be financed by public-private partnership, state partnerships and loans from multilateral agencies. 

NBCC Plans Three Townships in North India

National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd (NBCC) is planning townships in Alwar, Gurgaon, and Khekra (near Delhi-Saharanpur Highway) in the coming 3 months. 

Mr. Anoop Kumar Mittal, CMD of NBCC said that the townships will consist of 500-1,000 affordable housing units. He was speaking on the sidelines of inauguration of Construction & Demolition Waste Recycling Plant installed by the PSU at its project site of redevelopment of East Kidwai Nagar in Delhi.

The plant would save transportation cost of C&D waste material, besides reducing the material required for the project. It can process 150 tonnes of C&D waste a day, which in turn shall produce 30,000 bricks/kerb stone and shall be used in the construction of the project.

“With this plant, we expect to save Rs 3 crore on transporting and recycling waste and another Rs 6-7 crore as the recycled product will be 30 per cent cheaper,” Mittal said. The East Kidwai Nagar redevelopment scheme involves construction of approximately 4,747 houses in place of existing 2,444. The total plot area of the project is 86 acres. 

Mumbai Metro First Phase Ready

Following the final safety clearance from the Chief Metro Railway Commissioner, the Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd (MMOPL) can open the line for commercial use.

Work on the line, which began in 2006, was running behind schedule by three years. The project is being developed jointly by MMOPL, an Anil Ambani group company, and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority.

AK Mishra, Chief Executive Officer of MMOPL, told media persons on Wednesday that the fare issue was a sensitive matter, and that the board of MMOPL had not yet taken a decision on it. The operational costs of the project had shot up by 125 per cent because of the delay, he added.

In 2006, the project cost was estimated at Rs. 2,360 crore, but it has escalated to Rs 4,291 crore. The Versova-Ghatkopar metro line will have 12 stations and will operate form 5.30 am till midnight, with a train running every four minutes during peak hours and seven minutes during non-peak hours.

Kochi Metro Authorised To Purchase Land Directly

The Kerala Government has decided to give Kochi Metro Rail Ltd the authority for direct purchase of land for the project.

This was decided at a high-level review meeting headed by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and attended by Ministers and senior KMRL officials.

A press statement said that Rs 70 crore will be made available for land acquisition immediately for the widening of the Vyttila-Petta stretch, which involves the acquisition of 3.0138 hectares.

The meeting has asked Kerala Water Authority to complete pipe laying work through SA road on a priority basis. It was decided at the meeting to finish all the work by the end of next month and hand over that area to DMRC.

The meeting has also authorised KMRL Managing Director Elias George to hold discussions with St Albert’s College authorities regarding the land acquisition required at Kaloor. An extent of 98 cents is required from the land leased to the college for its football ground in front of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium for the construction of the metro station. 

Builders Demand Separate Ministry for Construction Sector

With the demand for skilled workers set to nearly treble by 2020, the construction industry wants a separate ministry both at the Union and the state level to address the issues affecting the sector. The construction industry, which employs about 10 million skilled workers now, would require at least 30 million such workers by 2020, said S K Basu, president of Builders’ Association of India (BAI). The construction industry would require 55-60 million workers by 2020, he said.

“We have to run from pillar to post when there is a problem. There is nobody to take care of our needs. We need a separate ministry or department,” Basu said. Stating that the construction industry has the second largest workforce (35 million) after agriculture in the country and it also ranked second in contribution to GDP (gross domestic product), he said they still have to work with various government departments and ministries.

“Steel and mining are tiny industries compared to construction in employment and gross turnover. But they still have separate ministries,” Basu, who was in the city to attend a workshop organised by BAI, said. The share of skilled workers in the overall workforce is less than 50% now and the aim is to increase it to 65% by 2020, he said.

Though state governments are collecting 1% labour cess on construction activities, the funds generated under the route are lying idle, senior BAI officials said. About Rs 9,000 crore collected as labour cess is with state governments and this could be utilised to impart skills training to construction workers, they said.

“The funds can be used for imparting training to workforce. State governments have their own infrastructure and run ITIs (industrial training institutes). They can offer skills training to unskilled workers,” Basu said.

The construction skill development council (CSDC) formed by BAI, CREDAI (Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India) and other construction bodies has started the groundwork for skills training, he said. “We already have 100 in-house trainers. It is very difficult to get trainers from villages. But they are needed to train the workforce who come mostly from rural areas,” Basu said. CSDC would offer training programmes for various jobs and issue certificates as well, he said.

NHAI and NHBF Join Hands to Lower Arbitration Costs

A dispute settlement committee set up by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has resolved 124 arbitration claims on the authority at just 10% of the original claim value, saving both litigation costs and time for NHAI as well as private contractors. Out of the cases taken up by the committee, only 17 cases involving nine companies remained unresolved. Out of total disputes of over Rs 20,000 crore, the committee succeeded in resolving pending claims and financial disputes worth Rs 9,395 crore for just Rs 910 crore. 

Buoyed by the success of the committee, which was set up in December 2012, The NHAI and National Highway Builders Federation (NHBF), the developers’ body, have together floated another body – The Society for Affordable Redressal of Disputes (SAROD).

While the society would work largely within the principles of the current dispute resolution framework, such as the International Centre for Alternate Dispute Resolution (ICADR) mechanism and the Indian Arbitration Act, it would deviate while attempting to limit the expenditure on arbitration, according to M Murali, Secretary General, NHBF.

The present mechanism allows arbitrators to define their own fees and there are cases of arbitrators asking for exorbitant fees. In a recent case involving a dispute regarding the Panipat-Jalandhar national highway, the arbitrators structured their fees in such a way that the fee payable to each arbitrator a day could go up to Rs 8 lakh, according to NHAI, which has estimated that the fees to resolve this dispute, based on the ICADR framework, would be Rs 32 crore, while that through the SAROD framework would be below Rs 50 lakh.

Also, NHAI and road developers feel that disputes solved through ICADR do not incentivise faster decisions or provide disincentives for delayed decisions.

Saudi Arabia to build world's tallest tower, reaching 1 kilometer into the sky

 Saudi Arabia to build world's tallest tower, reaching 1 kilometer into the sky

Dubai, long champion of all things biggest, longest andmost expensive, will soon have some competition from neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Dubai's iconic Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, could be stripped of its Guinness title if Saudi Arabia succeeds in its plans to construct the even larger Kingdom Tower in Jeddah -- a prospect looking more likely as work begins next week, according toConstruction Weekly.

Consultants Advanced Construction Technology Services have recently announced testing materials to build the 3,280-feet (1 kilometer) skyscraper (the Burj Khalifa, by comparison, stands at a meeker 2,716 feet, or 827 meters).

The Kingdom Tower, estimated to cost $1.23 billion, would have 200 floors and overlook the Red Sea. Building it will require about 5.7 million square feet of concrete and 80,000 tons of steel,according to the Saudi Gazette.

Building a structure that tall, particularly on the coast, where saltwater could potentially damage it, is no easy feat. The foundations, which will be 200 feet (60 meters) deep, need to be able to withstand the saltwater of the nearby ocean. As a result, Advanced Construction Technology Services will test the strength of different concretes.

Wind load is another issue for buildings of this magnitude. To counter this challenge, the tower will change shape regularly.

"Because it changes shape every few floors, the wind loads go round the building and won't be as extreme as on a really solid block," Gordon Gill explained toConstruction Weekly. Gill is a partner at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the design architects for the project.

Delivering the concrete to higher floors will also be a challenge. Possibly, engineers could use similar methods to those employed when building the Burj Khalifa; 6 million cubic feet of concrete was pushed through a single pump, usually at night when temperatures were low enough to ensure that it would set.

Though ambitious, building the Kingdom Tower should be feasible, according to Sang Dae Kim, the director of the Council on Tall Buildings.

"At this point in time we can build a tower that is one kilometer, maybe two kilometers. Any higher than that and we will have to do a lot of homework," he told Construction Weekly.

It is expected that construction of the tower will require 5.7 million square feet of concrete and 80,000 tons of steel.

For buildings of this stature, wind load could also put stress on the structure. To battle this, the design of the structure will change every few floors

There are plans for a 98-foot sky terrace on the 157th floor. When completed, it will be the highest terrace in the world.

The structure will overlook the Red Sea, posing additional challenges to the building process. It's particularly important that the foundations -- 200 feet deep -- won't be affected by saltwater from the ocean.

Like the Burj Khalifa, the Kingdom Tower will have a flower-shaped footprint.

The project is expected to cost $1.2 billion.

Engineers will also need to design a pump to help deliver concrete to high levels.

According to Construction Weekly, construction will start on the Kingdom Tower -- slated to be the world's tallest at 1 kilometer (3,280 feet) tall

ECOSMART CEMENT

Cement

concrete is the most widely used construction material in the world

Environmental impact of cement production
Concrete is the most common construction material used in the world. Cement is the principal ingredient in concrete. Producing one tonne of cement results in the emission of approximately one tonne of CO2, created by fuel combustion and the calcination of raw materials. Cement manufacturing is a source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for approximately 7% to 8% of CO2 globally (1), and approximately 1.8% of CO2 emissions in Canada (2). The cement industry has made significant progress in reducing CO2 emissions through improvements in process and efficiency, but further improvements are limited because CO2 production is inherent to the basic process of calcinating limestone.

Cement and CO2 in the Vancouver region
The cement manufacturing industry in the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) in British Columbia Canada, currently produces approximately 50% of industrial CO2 emissions, or 13% of the total CO2 emissions in the GVRD. The EcoSmart Concrete Project was initiated to address the issue of greenhouse gas emissions in the Lower Mainland.

EcoSmart™ concrete reduces CO2 & benefits the environment
There is an increasing demand for concrete worldwide, estimated to double within the next 30 years. How can that demand be met without a corresponding increase in greenhouse gases? By using Supplementary Cementing Materials (SCMs) to replace a maximum amount of the cement in concrete, we can reduce energy and resource consumption, reduce CO2 emissions, and lessen the negative environmental impact. There is a further environmental benefit in that most commonly used SCMs (such as fly ash) are waste products and would otherwise end up in landfills.

Global trends in CO2 emissions and potential impact of EcoSmart concrete
Projected increase in cement production over the next decade may produce a significant increase of greenhouse gas emissions. The scenario below shows that if just 30% of cement used globally were replaced with Supplementary Cementing Materials (SCMs), the rise in CO2 emissions from cement production could be reversed.

This scenario shows the percent of Supplementary Cementing Material replacement required to achieve zero percent increase in CO2 production from cement manufacture from 1995 to 2010.